This photographic alphabet book, focusing on letters found in nature rather than in manufactured objects, invites comparison with Jerome Wexler's imaginative investigations of the tiny. Here, two lines of verse and a full-color photograph of a butterfly or moth lie opposite a full-page, magnified detail of its wing that contains the shape of a letter. Each letter is also represented calligraphically and in a highlighted word of the text. Some of these latter samples are more felicitous than others: W for wing is quite apt, while X for exquisite is less than lovely. At the end of the book, solidly factual general information about butterflies is followed by a parade of short bios of the lepidoptera in these pages, collected over 25 years and in 30 countries. The book, inspired by Sandved's poster of the same name, is a happy conjunction of elements: surprisingly informative and visually pleasing. (Nonfiction. 4+)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-48003-0
Page Count: 66
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
Apolonia “Lina” Flores loves science and mathematical riddles, playing volleyball and collecting extravagant, romantic and lonely socks. But after the sudden death of her mother, her world in Corpus Christi, Texas, makes no sense: Her kind but distant English-teacher father has filled the house with books, and her best friend, Vanessa, has problems of her own. Vanessa’s parents have divorced and her mother spends her days making cascarones, a traditional Mexican good-luck craft made of eggshells and filled with confetti, which become the book’s central metaphor. Lina’s frustration grows as she discovers the vicissitudes of the first love and that happiness can be as fragile as an eggshell. An appealing coming-of-age novel set in a traditional Mexican-American town, in which Hispanic teachers, students and parents celebrate traditional American holidays such as Thanksgiving alongside such traditional Mexican observances as el Día de los Muertos and a Quinceañera. Local idioms of Spanish proverbs—dichos—used as chapter headings enlighten both characters and readers. (glossary) (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-02955-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2009
Floyd and Denise update “The Tortoise and the Hare” for primary readers, captioning each soft-focus, semi-rural scene with a short, simple sentence or two. Rabbit proposes running to school, while his friend Turtle takes the bus: no contest at first, as the bus makes stop after deliberate stop, but because Rabbit pauses at a pushcart for a snack, a fresh-looking Turtle greets his panting, disheveled friend on the school steps. There is no explicit moral, but children will get the point—and go on to enjoy Margery Cuyler’s longer and wilder Road Signs: A Harey Race with a Tortoise (p. 957). (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-202679-7
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
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