Calling all sea otter fans! (sources) (Nonfiction. 7-10)
Photojournalism tells the true story of Rialto, a rescued baby sea otter, along with many scientific and historical facts about sea otters.
Readers of Jean Reidy’s poetic, almost mystical, picture book Pup 681: A Sea Otter Rescue Story, illustrated by Ashley Crowley (2019), can seek out Mapes’ book for more facts about these critters. The text begins with simple sentences about the eponymous baby otter—named for Washington’s Rialto Beach, where he was stranded—but soon offers much more information than a tale of rescue and rehabilitation. By the text’s third page, readers have learned these facts: Normally, babies stay close to their mothers; they have “very loud voices so their mothers can hear them over the wind and waves”; sea otters are legally protected. The next page includes a full paragraph about baby sea otters’ dependency on their mothers, then a second paragraph that lists the babies’ predators and states that their survival rate in the wild is 50 percent. By the time Rialto is thriving in the Seattle Aquarium (prior to a permanent move to the Vancouver Aquarium), readers have learned about sea otter diet, fur, teeth, habits, and more. Before Rialto moves, there are 10 paragraphs and a map devoted to the otters’ human-caused, near extinction and their human-aided comeback. The clever truth: Less-motivated readers can view each of the numerous, oh-so-cute-and-cuddly photographs, then read their detailed captions to get the story’s condensed version.
Calling all sea otter fans! (sources) (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-14764-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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
A quick flight but a blast from first to last.
A charged-up roundup of astro-facts.
Having previously explored everything awesome about both dinosaurs (2019) and sharks (2020), Lowery now heads out along a well-traveled route, taking readers from the Big Bang through a planet-by-planet tour of the solar system and then through a selection of space-exploration highlights. The survey isn’t unique, but Lowery does pour on the gosh-wow by filling each hand-lettered, poster-style spread with emphatic colors and graphics. He also goes for the awesome in his selection of facts—so that readers get nothing about Newton’s laws of motion, for instance, but will come away knowing that just 65 years separate the Wright brothers’ flight and the first moon landing. They’ll also learn that space is silent but smells like burned steak (according to astronaut Chris Hadfield), that thanks to microgravity no one snores on the International Space Station, and that Buzz Aldrin was the first man on the moon…to use the bathroom. And, along with a set of forgettable space jokes (OK, one: “Why did the carnivore eat the shooting star?” “Because it was meteor”), the backmatter features drawing instructions for budding space artists and a short but choice reading list. Nods to Katherine Johnson and NASA’s other African American “computers” as well as astronomer Vera Rubin give women a solid presence in the otherwise male and largely White cast of humans. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A quick flight but a blast from first to last. (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-35974-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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