A fun way to introduce food science and bread making to young readers.
Iris spends the day with her aunt Mary, who teaches her how to make whole-wheat sourdough bread from starter.
Iris, a bespectacled girl who keeps an unusual number of pets, waves goodbye to her parents as they leave her with Aunt Mary, also bespectacled, who comes bearing packages. Aunt Mary introduces Iris to her starter, which she calls Flora, and tells her about the microbes in it that eat flour and water and release bubbles that make bread rise. Together, they mix and knead the dough, let it rest, fold it, and shape it. While they wait for the loaf to rest, they walk to the park, where Aunt Mary tells Iris that she became a plant scientist because of her interest in growing food. Finally, they get home and, after a close call (the dog is extremely interested in the rising loaf), they bake the bread and eat it with Iris’ parents. Sensory details of sounds, smells, and tastes throughout the story intrigue readers, and the facts about bread are organically introduced even if the characters are not especially memorable. Spare illustrations in hues of yellow, green, and blue highlight Iris’ excitement and curiosity about her world. Readers will delight in learning with her. Iris is brown with an exuberant cloud of hair; her father is black, and her mother and Aunt Mary are white.
A fun way to introduce food science and bread making to young readers. (facts, recipe, note, further resources) (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9984366-0-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Readers to Eaters
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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