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BE WILD

Name: BE WILD
Author: Leigh Crandall
ISBN: 9780807506288

AMAZING ANIMAL BEHAVIORS TO INSPIRE GROWING HUMANS

by Leigh Crandall ; illustrated by Angela Edmonds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 7, 2023

Easy on the eyes but saddled with an overstrained, anthropomorphic premise.

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Sometimes acting like animals can be a good thing.

In a series of comparisons that are, to say the least, stretched, Crandall invites readers to wash their ears and feet like jackrabbits, “make” their beds the way orangutans literally do every night, be good listeners like owls, which can “pinpoint even the tiniest scuffle of a mouse beneath the snow,” and look to other animals for similar behavioral cues. Some behaviors do seem at least somewhat analogous—she notes that a polar bear wishing to share another bear’s meal will ask permission “calmly and respectfully” by touching noses. But characterizing two elephants twining trunks as exchanging a “handshake” may be understating the intimacy of the gesture, and her assertion that hippo sweat “works just like sunscreen” may give readers misapprehensions about their own perspiration. Edmonds illustrates the author’s premise with cozy scenes of friendly-looking wild creatures in natural settings, from chimps grooming one another and jackrabbits cleaning themselves (with their tongues) to koalas and sea otters sacked out in their respective habitats and honeybees and humpback whales demonstrating teamwork. No human figures are depicted. The book closes with a brief note from Crandall about the importance of protecting wild animals and their habitats, as well as a short list of reference books.

Easy on the eyes but saddled with an overstrained, anthropomorphic premise. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2023

ISBN: 9780807506288

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Whitman

Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?

From the What if You Had . . .? series

by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Howard McWilliam ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2024

Another playful imagination-stretcher.

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Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.

As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.

Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: May 7, 2024

ISBN: 9781339049052

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT NARWHAL RESCUE
by Sandra Markle

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CALL THE BEE DOCTOR!
by Sandra Markle

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COULD YOU EVER DINE WITH DINOSAURS!?
by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Vanessa Morales

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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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)