An illuminating look at the dark’s wonders, both informative and atmospheric.
“When night falls, everything is dark. Or is it?”
In this Swedish import, Sjöberg suggests that viewers look again, and against pitch-black backdrops she casts sprays of stars and curtains of ionized northern (and southern) lights across night skies, glimmering fish and other marine creatures in shallow or deep-sea settings, lambent residents of otherwise lightless caves, fungi and even birds glowing eerily in ultraviolet light, and empty city streets faintly lit by windows and streetlights. Mainly she focuses on the natural world, presenting views of astronomical phenomena, ranks of fluorescent minerals, and dozens of biofluorescent or bioluminescent creatures. These include fire centipedes and certain shrimp that cast glowing nets of slime as a defense, the reflective eyes of cats and deer, puffins with UV–reactive beaks, luminous earthworms, toothy anglerfish, and, in the near future perhaps, glowing trees and textiles. Sjöberg occasionally plays fast and loose with facts—a star will last for a bit more than “thousands of years,” and there actually is a natural explanation for swamp lights. As well, the survey presents readers with a visual challenge by presenting much of the narrative in tiny, dim type. Still, while feeding scientific interest, the author effectively makes a comforting point that for all its feeling of scary mystery, the dark is rarely, if ever, absolute.
An illuminating look at the dark’s wonders, both informative and atmospheric. (afterword) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-500-65219-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure.
It’s not truffles but doubloons that tickle this porcine wayfarer’s fancy.
Funke and Meyer make another foray into chapter-book fare after Emma and the Blue Genie (2014). Here, mariner Stout Sam and deckhand Pip eke out a comfortable existence on Butterfly Island ferrying cargo to and fro. Life is good, but it takes an unexpected turn when a barrel washes ashore containing a pig with a skull-and-crossbones pendant around her neck. It soon becomes clear that this little piggy, dubbed Julie, has the ability to sniff out treasure—lots of it—in the sea. The duo is pleased with her skills, but pride goeth before the hog. Stout Sam hands out some baubles to the local children, and his largess attracts the unwanted attention of Barracuda Bill and his nasty minions. Now they’ve pignapped Julie, and it’s up to the intrepid sailors to save the porker and their own bacon. The succinct word count meets the needs of kids looking for early adventure fare. The tale is slight, bouncy, and amusing, though Julie is never the piratical buccaneer the book’s cover seems to suggest. Meanwhile, Meyer’s cheery watercolors are as comfortable diagramming the different parts of a pirate vessel as they are rendering the dread pirate captain himself.
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37544-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
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