An affecting and informative book about a remarkable set of aquatic mammals.
An illustrated nonfiction work for children about a special group of whales: the Southern Resident orcas of the Salish Sea in Washington state and British Columbia.
The story opens describing two matriarchs of the orca group hunting for Chinook salmon to eat and share with other whales in the pod. After introductory information about orcas, regarding their methods of communication, their diet, and their familial structure, retired educator Mahoney describes an almost magical event that only Southern Resident orcas engage in: a meetup known as the Greeting Ceremony, in which all the whales line up and regard each other silently for a few moments before joyously swimming and playing together. In this book’s account, the evening ends with a whale giving birth to a new calf. The author also tells of how these special creatures have also been documented traveling with a dead orca calf in what may be described as a thousand-mile grief swim. The Southern Resident orcas are closely monitored by scientists, Mahoney notes; they’ve found that Chinook salmon, which make up most of the whales’ diets, are in a sharp decline—they’re smaller, and there are fewer of them in recent years. Triplett’s painterly illustrations are beautiful, with a style that’s both realistic and dreamlike. Overall, the main text of this book is effectively tender and positive. However, the work intriguingly doesn’t sugarcoat events in the 1960s and ’70s that gave the Salish Sea the nickname “the sea of troubles”; a large number of Southern Resident orca whales were forcibly captured and taken to tanks all over the globe, which is how scientists learned about how they communicate. An afterword presents even more information about orcas as a species and specifics regarding the three pods that make up this specific group.
An affecting and informative book about a remarkable set of aquatic mammals.Pub Date: July 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-977253-45-3
Page Count: 46
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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