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
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
