A surprisingly comforting and thoughtful ode to darkness.
Afraid of the dark? You won’t be after this tale.
“The dark is for growing,” Alary writes, making a lovely comparison between a human baby developing in a dark womb and birds and turtles growing inside eggs. Throughout, the refrain “And you are not the only one” makes clear that both humans and animals enjoy aspects of the darkness. Humans dream and work through ideas in the dark, while a slumbering cat might be dreaming about how to catch a mouse. And sleep is useful for bees, huddled in their dark hive—it “clears [their] minds so they remember where to find food.” A spread about darkness healing the brain and body during sleep is festively illustrated with bright colors that pop against a black backdrop, filled with one- and two-celled creatures, stars, and a child slumbering beside a teddy bear. On another page, Hugo draws a connection between children sharing secrets at night, while trees communicate messages to other plants and fungi in the dark soil. One particularly moving scene shows a young child dealing with sensory overload tucked into a closet “to curl up in the comforting dark.” In a tribute to those humans and creatures that thrive in the dark and “want to stand out and be noticed,” Hugo illustrates children in glowing pajamas dancing, while a bioluminescent plant with “ruffles of bitter oyster mushroom” makes its own light at night. Human characters are diverse.
A surprisingly comforting and thoughtful ode to darkness. (more information on light and darkness, two experiments) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781771475570
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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