by Marilyn Singer ; illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 2021
Just a footnote—but worth treasuring for its very unlikeliness.
An expanded version of one of the several solutions to the Mad Hatter’s riddle about how a raven is like a writing desk: Poe and Dickens wrote on both.
It’s a neat literary anecdote, though, as more than one raven was involved, Singer has to fudge it a bit. It seems that Charles Dickens kept a succession of pesky ravens as pets, all named Grip. The first he turned into a character in Barnaby Rudge and then had stuffed and mounted when it died. The second was incorporated into a painting of the author’s children that he took with him on an American tour—where Poe saw it in Philadelphia and, being a struggling writer who, as the narrative puts it, “needed a hit,” penned a certain renowned poem. The rest is history. Adding the occasional inscribed Nevermore to tempt listeners to chime in, Fotheringham outfits the two gently caricatured White men and several racially diverse gaggles of laughing children in period clothing and sends multiple ravens, all bearing the same cocky smile, fluttering through the illustrations. Along with added-value closing notes on the ravens of the Tower of London (many named Gripp) and the corvid clan in general, this genial account closes the circle by following Grip I down the years to its current, permanent home…in Philadelphia. It seems only right. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Just a footnote—but worth treasuring for its very unlikeliness. (bibliography, web sites) (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-32472-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
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by Michael Worek ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2013
Resplendent.
In glittering, chitinous splendor, 59 insects, from an elegantly dappled Mexican dobsonfly to an 8-inch Macleay’s spectre pose for close-ups in this eye-widening photo gallery.
Arranged in no particular order and enlarged to roughly the same size, the cast of beetles, bugs, ants, mantids and caterpillars all seems to be sitting directly on the plain white pages, with pale shadows added and the occasional twig or bud for a prop. Nearly all not only bear vividly colored patterns or coats of shimmering armor, but display as astonishing an array of exotic forms as ever was—these bugs are decked out with baroque spikes, palps, antennae and other features. Worek supplies common and scientific labels for all this eye candy, as well as enough information on each subject’s size, diet, geographical range and life cycle to please even larval entomologists.
Resplendent. (index) (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-77085-235-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
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by Alain M. Bergeron ; Michel Quintin ; Sampar ; illustrated by Sampar ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2014
Strong-stomached browsers will lap these up; budding naturalists will find better intellectual nourishment elsewhere.
A dribble of scientific information about everyone’s favorite bloodsucking worm provides a Canadian cartoonist with opportunities for some rousingly icky visual commentary.
The informational text comprises such lines as “Most leeches live in fresh water,” or “Oftentimes, doctors would apply up to 100 leeches per session,” arranged in no discernible order and placed inconspicuously at the bottom of each page. They caption cartoon scenes of a young collector cheerfully dumping a slimy bucketful into his horrified parent’s bathwater, a doctor leaning over a desiccated patient (“Something tells me we might have left these leeches on a bit too long”), a child refusing to enter a pond for fear of the creatures—unaware that her back is covered with them—and other views of comically caricatured leeches and their prey in action or conversation. Though readers will be at least exposed to some basic information about these creatures’ habitats, body parts, dietary habits, reproductive practices and uses in medicine, Sampar’s gross-out gags and comics will definitely make, and leave, the more lasting impression. This outing is published with seven series mates that offer less revolting but no less superficial (and, OK, diverting) introductions to chameleons, crocodiles, crows, porcupines, rats, spiders and toads.
Strong-stomached browsers will lap these up; budding naturalists will find better intellectual nourishment elsewhere. (glossary, index) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: March 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55455-318-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
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