by Mary Holland ; photographed by Mary Holland ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2017
A de-tail-ed look at an important adaptation across species.
A fascinating up-close look at the many uses animals have for their tails.
Frogs and toads start out with tails that help them swim but lose them as they grow and move to living on land. Deer use their tails as flags to warn others of danger. Beavers do this as well, plus they use their wide tails to steer, store fat, and balance. Everyone knows that a skunk’s lifted tail is a sign of imminent trouble, and the prehensile tails of opossums help them grasp tree branches. When it’s cold, a fox uses its bushy tail as a blanket. Muskrats and birds use their tails as rudders to help them steer, one through water, the other through the sky. And porcupines and bees use their tails for defense. Holland’s photos are a highlight, filling three-quarters of each page and sometimes including inset pictures—of the skunk’s rear with tail raised and of the beaver in midslap. Readers can see individual hairs and feathers and will want to curl up with the adorable fox. But two photographed animals have no accompanying text: the red squirrel on the cover and the snake in the opening spread. The “For Creative Minds” section in the back invites readers to match animals to their tails and describes the tail adaptations of flying squirrels, salamanders, fireflies, bats, and otters. A Spanish-language edition, Las colas de los animales, publishes simultaneously.
A de-tail-ed look at an important adaptation across species. (Informational picture book 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62855-976-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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by Mary Holland ; photographed by Mary Holland
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by Mary Holland
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by Mary Holland ; photographed by Mary Holland
by Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 5, 2017
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard.
Rotner follows Hello Spring (2017) with this salute to the fall season.
Name a change seen in northern climes in fall, and Rotner likely covers it here, from plants, trees, and animals to the food we harvest: seeds are spread, the days grow shorter and cooler, the leaves change and fall (and are raked up and jumped in), some animals migrate, and many families celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. As in the previous book, the photographs (presented in a variety of sizes and layouts, all clean) are the stars here, displaying both the myriad changes of the season and a multicultural array of children enjoying the outdoors in fall. These are set against white backgrounds that make the reddish-orange print pop. The text itself uses short sentences and some solid vocabulary (though “deep sleep” is used instead of “hibernate”) to teach readers the markers of autumn, though in the quest for simplicity, Rotner sacrifices some truth. In several cases, the addition of just a few words would have made the following oversimplified statements reflect reality: “Birds grow more feathers”; “Cranberries float and turn red.” Also, Rotner includes the statement “Bees store extra honey in their hives” on a page about animals going into deep sleep, implying that honeybees hibernate, which is false.
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3869-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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by Gwen Agna & Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner
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by Shelley Rotner ; illustrated by Shelley Rotner
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by Gwen Agna & Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner
by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali
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