Oceanographer Cerullo provides a potpourri of odd facts about 25 sea creatures, including lionfish, giant octopus, jellies, stingrays, and tiger sharks. While many of the full-color underwater photos are appealing, the busy format detracts. Each double-page spread includes several paragraphs of text against a brightly colored background, photos, and banal cartoon-like line drawings. Photos cropped and dropped into the layout in a variety of boxes and bubbles offer no information on the size of creatures shown, so the reader is not sure whether the sea snake is larger than a moray eel, or whether a grouper is actually four times the size of a human diver. The author concludes with “helpful hints.” If you get injured exploring the ocean, for instance, she suggests calling “a doctor or poison control center.” Hardly earth-shattering. (glossary, further reading, Web sites, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-8118-4050-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
Little Caterpillar longs to fly away with friends Ladybird and Bee. Wingless and earthbound, she patiently awaits their eventual reappearance. However, when Ladybird and Bee return from an aerial jaunt one day they discover that their friend is missing. Snail informs them that she is slumbering within a cocoon. Soon, to her friends delight, Caterpillar emerges sporting a pair of glorious yellow wings and asks to be called by her new name, Butterfly. The three are next seen soaring over the garden together. Murphy (I Like It When . . ., 1997) puts the characters for this vivid picture book amid the bright foliage of a bountiful garden. In the full-page illustrations, awash with color and drawn from a bug’s perspective, boldly outlined flowers loom as tall as trees, while leaves provide a verdant canopy for the convivial insects. The oversized format and thick, durable paper allow toddlers the freedom to manipulate the pages on their own, which they will, and frequently. (Picture book. 1-4)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7894-2593-9
Page Count: 20
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The illustrator of Barry Lopez’s Crow and Weasel (1990) moves to a more delicate style and palette to create this set of winsome pictures—accompanying, unfortunately, an aimless half-story. Weary of winter, young Eva and her cat Sam embark on the zeppelin La Grande Banane for a sunny, unnamed North African country. After being driven out of their hotel room by a gang of domino-playing insects, the two take a camel named Cassis across the desert to the elegant Crocodile CafÇ, contrive to escape when they discover themselves to be featured items on tomorrow’s menu, and are last seen penning postcards to friends back home. Depicted with transparent colors and thin, graceful lines, Eva and her feline companion exude similar airs of poised self-confidence, meeting each reversal of fortune with cheerful aplomb. Readers will fall in love with these intrepid vacationers, making the plot, which never comes to more than a handful of random incidents, all the more unsatisfactory. A misfire, albeit a promising one; readers will long to see Sam and Eva again, but in a stronger story. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 7, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-32898-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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