A nonfiction introduction to black bear yearlings for the youngest children.
An introduction to black bear yearlings from nature photographer/author Holland.
Readers meet Yodel and his family (the cubs cannot be differentiated in the photos) as they “are just waking up from a long winter’s nap.” The cubs will have another six months to learn survival skills from their mother before they will have to “say goodbye” to her. (Holland anthropomorphizes the bears’ feelings and actions throughout.) Yodel’s days are filled with napping, grooming, chewing sticks, playing with his siblings, nursing, and looking for food. When their mother leaves them to find food, the cubs climb the “babysitter tree” until her return. The few short sentences with easy vocabulary on each page make this ideal for young children and new readers. Holland’s photos include some great shots of the babysitter tree, the family group, and the brothers wrestling. Several, though, are more difficult to make out; the bears’ black fur makes them blend into one another and into background tree bark. Backmatter explains the difference between torpor and hibernation and includes two activities: one identifying what black bears eat from among 11 photos and the other matching descriptions of evidence of black bears to photos. Answers are right-side-up at the bottoms of the pages. The lengthy sentences and tougher vocabulary (which includes more scientific words, though, sadly, the verbs “pee” and “poop” are not augmented by less-juvenile terms, as the noun “poop” is by “scat” in a different section) in the backmatter are aimed at more-able readers than the rest of the text. A Spanish-language edition, Yodel, el chiquitín, publishes simultaneously.
A nonfiction introduction to black bear yearlings for the youngest children. (Informational picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-60718-448-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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