Together with its companion, strong additions to a series sure to find its way to classroom and school libraries.
Mammals—a perennial early-elementary topic—are presented in a new light in this latest entry in the Compare and Contrast series.
Yes, Hall does hit on all the characteristics that make an animal a mammal, but these facts are presented in a way that allows children to compare and contrast various mammal species: a silverback gorilla breathes through its nose, whereas an Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin breathes through a blowhole, and while a grizzly’s hair is apparent, a manatee has sparse hair that is barely noticeable. The enormous variety within the class makes the coverage necessarily superficial. Backmatter encourages readers to use the provided dichotomous key to identify eight species according to type of animal, gives facts about three “different” mammals—the platypus, the echidna, and bats—and encourages children to keep a nature journal of evidence of animals’ presence. Companion title Sharks and Dolphins, by Kevin Kurtz, is a more successful compare-and-contrast exercise, as these animals look very similar but are actually quite different. Topics addressed include where they are found, types of each, fish versus mammal, body characteristics, and what and how they eat. Backmatter instructs readers on reading and making a Venn diagram and asks them to put a food web in the proper order and identify shark and dolphin body parts. Both books rely on well-chosen stock photos, but those in Sharks are labeled and more dynamic and interesting.
Together with its companion, strong additions to a series sure to find its way to classroom and school libraries. (Nonfiction. 4-7)Pub Date: March 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62855-7299
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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