A great overview—for more specifics about each insect, check out Judy Allen’s Backyard Books series.
This look at how insects survive the cold may have young naturalists scouring the winter landscape to find them for themselves.
From those who migrate or hibernate to ones that hide or are still eggs, Glaser has assembled a wide variety of 12 of the more common insects, including ants, ladybugs, dragonflies, honeybees, monarchs, praying mantises and black swallowtail butterflies. Short verses present readers with how each gets through the winter, but a lack of rhythm and inconsistent rhymes make reading aloud a challenge: “If you were a gallfly in winter, / you’d still be a baby living in a gall. / You’d chew a little opening to get out in the spring. / But all winter you’d stay in that small round ball.” Backmatter provides a paragraph more of information on each of the 12. Gorgeous full-bleed illustrations filled with color and detail depict the insects in winter. Some need close inspection or pre-existing knowledge of what the insect looks like, as they can be hard to spot, and backmatter only pictures the adult. Many pages also include people, either observing the insects or going about wintertime amusements.
A great overview—for more specifics about each insect, check out Judy Allen’s Backyard Books series. (Nonfiction. 5-9)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7613-5644-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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