ROGER TORY PETERSON'S ABC OF BIRDS

Name: ROGER TORY PETERSON'S ABC OF BIRDS
Author: Linda Westervelt
ISBN: 0-7893-0009-5

by Linda Westervelt & illustrated by Roger Tory Peterson & photographed by Roger Tory Peterson & Seymour Levin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995

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A noted ornithologist contributes some stunning full-color illustrations and photographs to a disappointing book that introduces one bird for almost every letter of the alphabet. Children will enjoy browsing, but the information presented is often trivial and many of the illustrations appear to be recycled from other sources, e.g., a page on feathers shows 29 carefully numbered examples, without matching explanations or names. The text is pedestrian: ``C is for Cardinal. Cardinals sing `Birdy, birdy, birdy' and many other lovely songs in the spring,'' the laughing gull ``searches for just about anything to eat,'' and ``Color the Green Jay noisy, bold, and beautiful.'' (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-7893-0009-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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KITOTO THE MIGHTY

by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Kristi Frost ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

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A familiar folktale is retold, as a mouse goes in search of the most powerful entity on earth, and finds out that it is one of his own kind. Hungry and searching for food, Kitoto flees a predatory hawk. He approaches the powerful river and beseeches it to be his friend and protect him, for it “must be the most powerful of all beings.” The river explains that the sun is the most powerful, for it can burn the river to a trickle. The sun refers the mouse to the wind, who can hide the savanna from its view with clouds. When Kitoto finds a mouse chewing holes through a mountain, they become friends and pledge to help each other. The illustrations portray the savanna with exotic animals and deeply colored landscapes; the elements, personified, are outlandish, from the sun with its wild points of golden hair to the wind with serpentine braids and gold bracelets. This old story is always compelling, in a setting full of adventure. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-7737-3019-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1998

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
SUBIRA SUBIRA
by Tololwa M. Mollel

- BOOK REVIEW
SONG BIRD
adapted by Tololwa M. Mollel

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FLYING TORTOISE
adapted by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Barbara Spurll

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MAD ABOUT PLAID

by Jill McElmurry & illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2000

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Newcomer McElmurry offers a madcap romp with a plaid that spreads like the flu. Little Madison Pratt finds a purse in the park, a plaid purse with a sad blue inside: “Don't worry. I'll take care of you,” says Madison. But as she steps along, the plaid on the purse starts to crawl up her arm and the next thing you know, Madison has a bad case of the plaids, from her allplaid clothes to the plaid blush on her cheek. She follows her doctor's orders to rest easy, but a small plaid burp escapes her lips (product of the non-plaid cola she is sipping) and taints the rest of the town plaid, all plaid. In a brainstorm, Madison returns to the park where she dropped the purse and turns it inside out, only to release a plague of melancholy blue over everything. Life returns to normal only after Madison sings an extra-silly round of her extra-silly song, which just goes to show that “as you probably already knew, with a silly grin on you can't stay blue.” McElmurry has written the story in rhyme, but she keeps the wordplay on the ragged side, with broken syncopations, to keep both readers and listeners alert. The artwork is jazzy and two-dimensional, with, of course, the emphasis on color, as a book about plaid really ought to do. (Picture book. 5-7)