Strong appeals to the sense of adventure as well as the typical other five.
Visits to 11 of the most extreme places on Earth—and beyond.
Inviting intrepid young explorers to pack up survival gear and follow along, Stewart-Sharpe leads a zigzag tour that begins in the heat-blasted Danakil Depression of Ethiopia, ends on Mars, and in between roves from the subterranean Krubera Cave in (the country of) Georgia and the benthic Challenger Deep to volcanic Zavodovski Island (“The world’s stinkiest place”). Along with proposing such feats as sky-diving to the top of Mount Everest and hauling a pulk (sled) across Antarctica, the author name-drops dozens of actual people, including many with disabilities, who have done the same and also calls attention to each locale’s distinctive sights, sounds, scents, sensations, and tastes. Cushley provides such helpful images as a tally of useful supplies but goes mostly for montage-style outdoor scenes populated by local wildlife and small, racially diverse visitors. Even seasoned armchair travelers will not only encounter some unfamiliar places, but are likely to find all of them more memorable for the sensory notes about, for instance, the taste of piranha (“weirdly ‘muddy’ ”), the smell of a lightning storm over Lake Maracaibo, or the feeling of a venomous mulga snake gliding over a boot in the Australian Outback. A reminder to take care of our planet plus the leading question “But where to next?” add suitable closing notes.
Strong appeals to the sense of adventure as well as the typical other five. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781623544195
Page Count: 68
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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
More thoughtful, sometimes exhilarating encounters with nature.
In a new entry in the Over and Under series, a paddleboarder glimpses humpback whales leaping, floats over a populous kelp forest, and explores life on a beach and in a tide pool.
In this tale inspired by Messner’s experiences in Monterey Bay in California, a young tan-skinned narrator, along with their light-skinned mom and tan-skinned dad, observes in quiet, lyrical language sights and sounds above and below the sea’s serene surface. Switching perspectives and angles of view and often leaving the family’s red paddleboards just tiny dots bobbing on distant swells, Neal’s broad seascapes depict in precise detail bat stars and anchovies, kelp bass, and sea otters going about their business amid rocky formations and the swaying fronds of kelp…and, further out, graceful moon jellies and—thrillingly—massive whales in open waters beneath gliding pelicans and other shorebirds. After returning to the beach at day’s end to search for shells and to spot anemones and decorator crabs, the child ends with nighttime dreams of stars in the sky meeting stars in the sea. Appended nature notes on kelp and 21 other types of sealife fill in details about patterns and relationships in this rich ecosystem. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
More thoughtful, sometimes exhilarating encounters with nature. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-79720-347-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf