The pictures are a weak link, but younger readers and listeners will happily take this quick dive into the sea of random...
Smooth segues provide the cement for this high-wattage, if less-than-carefully illustrated, set of animal facts.
Oswald’s cartoon images of popeyed, well-caffeinated creatures crank up the visual energy to frantic levels. Unfortunately, at the outset, they contradict the author’s correct observation that hippos’ noses are placed on the tops of their heads. In another misstep, both illustration and a thought balloon misleadingly suggest that bats can recognize a passing 747 with echolocation (their range is much, much smaller). For the most part, though, DiSiena and Eliot’s revelations are both accurate and just as detailed as they need to be to keep and hold attention. They glide from the hippo’s titular lack of buoyancy (they walk along river bottoms) to the surprising fleetness of sea turtles. From there, it’s on to jellyfish, which don’t actively swim but do flash with bioluminescence—just like fireflies. So it goes, until the parade of facts circles neatly back around to blue whales (“actually the largest animals that have ever lived”) and a closing assurance that “unlike hippos…blue whales sure can SWIM!” Though the authors supply no supportive references or leads to further information, they do tuck in an additional “Fun Fact” about each of the 14 animals at the end. A companion, Chickens Don’t Fly and Other Fun Facts, publishes simultaneously.
The pictures are a weak link, but younger readers and listeners will happily take this quick dive into the sea of random knowledge. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9352-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
Skip—skinned knees should be the only elementary school drama.
A first-grade love story with a woodchuck as a go-between. Really.
Other kids bring a ukulele, a sombrero, a feather, or a tadpole to show and tell. Not Chuck. He brings Woodchuck to class, and the guest rodent entertains everyone to such an extent that he becomes a permanent fixture in the classroom. Woodchuck is especially friendly to Caroline, the first-person narrator, a brunette who wears glasses. On a cold, windy day, Woodchuck delivers a hat for her to wear that looks suspiciously like Chuck’s. And when she drops her cupcake, Woodchuck is there with another: Chuck’s. The rodent-mediated sweetness continues throughout the school year, until Chuck finally works up the courage to ask her if he and Woodchuck might walk her home, the final spread showing the three of them holding hands, Woodchuck in the middle. While kids will undoubtedly find Woodchuck’s antics cool, this is otherwise a very odd picture book—a love story involving 6-year-olds. They don’t play together, and Chuck isn’t protecting his ladylove from bullies or standing up for her, making this story about as far from first-grade reality as it can get (besides the genius mammal). Bell’s ink-and-digital cartoon illustrations depict blocky characters with not much facial expression, excepting Woodchuck, who rather steals the show. Both main characters are white, though there is a bit of diversity in the school.
Skip—skinned knees should be the only elementary school drama. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7524-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Why ask children to think deep thoughts when you can offer a superficial variation on the common “Where’s Mama?” theme...
Two picture-book veterans offer a phoned-in collaboration that blows off not only the Big Question it poses, but the plot, too.
A puzzled hatchling chameleon actually has two posers: “Could you tell me who I am and where I come from?” he asks of a giraffe, an elephant and a succession of other jungle animals. No, replies each, identifying itself in a patterned way—“I am the cheetah and I am the fastest animal in the whole wide world, but I do not know what sort of creature you are.” A toothy crocodile at last promises enlightenment if only the little tyke will come closer…but just as he’s is about to climb on the croc’s nose, along comes Mama Chameleon to identify her little one as “my little baby chameleon, the most beautiful and unusual creature in the whole wide world!” and whisk him away to meet his many sibs. In his loosely brushed pictures, Ross adds an ingenious detail to the narrative by having the little one adopt the colors of each animal he questions, but he contradicts Phinn’s version of the climax (having the lizard clamber atop the nose of a croc whose mouth is closer to closed than wide open as described) and, in blithe disregard for internal logic, inexplicably sends the suddenly meek crocodile packing.
Why ask children to think deep thoughts when you can offer a superficial variation on the common “Where’s Mama?” theme instead? (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7613-8996-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Andersen Press USA
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
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