Engaging and information rich, this is wonderfully well woven.
A celebration of spiders in poetry and prose.
The team that produced Superlative Birds (2019) and other highly regarded science poetry collections has selected 35 from the more than 48,000 species to introduce the order Araneae—spiders. An opening poem concludes, “Let’s spy spiders!” and that’s what follows. An early spread shows and tells readers what distinguishes spiders from other arachnids. The text is organized topically, covering special spider abilities (like silk spinning), sensory mechanisms, and a wide variety of behaviors including locomotion, capturing prey, eating, courting, and child care. Some spider predators and a few species that live socially are also introduced. Each spread includes the topic, a few paragraphs of exposition, and one to three cheerfully illustrated poems describing particular species or behaviors. As always, Bulion uses both evocative vocabulary and a variety of poetic forms; these are chosen with care and defined in the backmatter. The peacock spider, which raises a colorful flap in a courtship dance, is celebrated with a “Hoe-Down,” recalling a traditional song: “Spider gal, won’t you signal you’re mine, / And we’ll dance by the light of the sun!” The golden silk orbweaver gets a haiku: “sun-shimmer silk / calls six-legged web guests— / dinner!” The impressive backmatter also includes identification, with scientific names, for every spider shown; instructions for spider hunting; and relative sizes gauged against a familiar No. 2 pencil.
Engaging and information rich, this is wonderfully well woven. (glossary, resources, acknowledgments) (Informational poetry. 7-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68263-192-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can count on plenty of chuckles along with a mild challenge or two.
Rollicking verses on “numerous” topics.
Returning to the theme of her Mathematickles! (2003), illustrated by Steven Salerno, Franco gathers mostly new ruminations with references to numbers or arithmetical operations. “Do numerals get out of sorts? / Do fractions get along? / Do equal signs complain and gripe / when kids get problems wrong?” Along with universal complaints, such as why 16 dirty socks go into a washing machine but only 12 clean ones come out or why there are “three months of summer / but nine months of school!" (“It must have been grown-ups / who made up / that rule!”), the poet offers a series of numerical palindromes, a phone number guessing game, a two-voice poem for performative sorts, and, to round off the set, a cozy catalog of countable routines: “It’s knowing when night falls / and darkens my bedroom, / my pup sleeps just two feet from me. / That watching the stars flicker / in the velvety sky / is my glimpse of infinity!” Tey takes each entry and runs with it, adding comically surreal scenes of appropriately frantic or settled mood, generally featuring a diverse group of children joined by grotesques that look like refugees from Hieronymous Bosch paintings. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Readers can count on plenty of chuckles along with a mild challenge or two. (Poetry/mathematical picture book. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0116-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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