Less complex than other titles on the subject, this would be a good starting point for curious children just starting to...
With simple text and revealing close-up photographs, nature photographer Holland demonstrates how an animal’s eyes can tell us something about their owner.
Predators’ eyes, located on the fronts of their heads, work together to help them judge the distance to their prey. Prey animals, on the other hand, have eyes on either side of their heads that allow them to detect threats from many directions. These and other facts about the eyes of animals ranging from owls and dragonflies to turtles and human children are likely to fascinate readers drawn in by the illustrations. Besides predator-prey distinctions, the author also points out the large eyes of nocturnal animals, the eight eyes of spiders and the third eyelid of some swimming animals (the phrase “nictitating membrane” is explained in the backmatter). Finally, she points out that eyes can reveal age or sex. Eyes matter! The large-font text includes challenges to readers: “Do you think this black bear cub is very young or older?” Four pages of backmatter provide further facts, definitions and matching games. The animals shown are clearly identified in the text; a repeated list on the colophon includes the slug on the title page.
Less complex than other titles on the subject, this would be a good starting point for curious children just starting to read. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62855-446-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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