This diverse writer, sometimes poet, sometimes humorist, sometimes naturalist, explores the topic of wings—how they are shaped, what they are made of, and how they work for their animal owners. She describes how the long, narrow ones of the arctic tern help the birds soar on air currents, while the rounded ones of the owl give this predator faster takeoff, and the slim crescent-shaped wings of the swallow allow them to twist and turn through the air as they hunt flying insects. She discusses the other uses of wings: to scare off rivals, to attract a mate, to lure an enemy away from a nest, and to cool off a hot bird. The text is rich in details that will intrigue and interest young naturalists, though the format of a large-sized picture book may deter some older readers. Each double-page spread is illustrated with full-color paintings of the flyers discussed. While the illustrations are beautiful and accurate, the inclusion of so many different animals on the same double page without regard for size, or region of the world in which they live, could be distracting. For example, one set of pages shows a black vulture, a bald eagle, a barn owl, a barn swallow, a hummingbird, a great horned owl diving after a mouse, a hummingbird approaching a flower for nectar, a flock of swallows, and two Emperor penguins with baby. Visually it’s a lot to absorb. The more successful paintings show a single habitat—a meadow, for instance—and the plants and winged creatures that live in and around it. Additionally, a sequence that shows how a bat uses its wings to catch its lunch is especially effective. The author concludes with Web sites and addresses of organizations to contact for more information about conservation, a glossary, further reading, and a brief index. (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: March 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8234-1547-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-87175-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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