This yearlong chronicle explores the physical attributes, habits, and habitat of the red fox.
While “her long, fluffy tail covers her body like a blanket,” Vixen, a red fox, is oblivious to the February snows. With her acute senses of smell and hearing, Vixen hunts in winter and forages plant foods the rest of the year. Because she prefers hunting at dawn and dusk, Vixen’s life remains secret. As spring approaches, Vixen and her mate “stay in touch,” marking their territory. After making a den in an abandoned burrow, Vixen gives birth to four kits, nurturing them for four weeks while her mate brings her food. After the kits emerge, they spend the summer learning to hunt and eventually depart to claim their own territories. Through the narrative about Vixen, Pringle thoughtfully explains how red foxes are canines, omnivores, and predators, including just enough specifics on hunting, mating, and parenting, with specialized vocabulary printed in italics in the narrative and defined in a glossary. Rendered in muted pastels and aqua crayons on sanded paper, the impressionistically fuzzy but otherwise realistic illustrations add depth, drama, and detail to the informative, entertaining text. Intimate scenes of Vixen alternate with panoramic vistas, capturing the essence of the red fox and her world. A “More About the Red Fox” section supplements the text.
Visually captivating introduction to the red fox’s secret life. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62979-260-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lad finds a penguin on his doorstep and resolutely sets out to return it in this briefly told import.
Eventually, he ends up rowing it all the way back to Antarctica, braving waves and storms, filling in the time by telling it stories. But then, feeling lonely after he drops his silent charge off, he belatedly realizes that it was probably lonely too, and turns back to find it. Seeing Jeffers’s small, distant figures in wide, simply brushed land- and sea-scapes, young viewers will probably cotton to the penguin’s feelings before the boy himself does—but all’s well that ends well, and the reunited companions are last seen adrift together in the wide blue sea.
Readers who (inexplicably) find David Lawrence’s Pickle and Penguin (2004) just too weird may settle in more comfortably with this—slightly—less offbeat friendship tale. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-24503-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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