Readers are sure to request both rereads and pancakes…and maybe a few spiles and buckets of their own.
Follow along as Bear collects sap to make maple syrup.
Even as Eaton folds in lots of information, diagrams, and solid vocabulary (“spiles,” “brace,” “sugarbush”), the antics of Bear’s two sidekicks—Squirrel and Dog—will keep readers in stitches and turning pages and learning a lot about the process of maple sugaring. Eaton uses text boxes, vignettes, speech bubbles, and comics-style panels to keep readers’ interest and break up the information. A spread about maples shows four types and their different leaves. The red maple is labeled “Distinct teeth on leaves” while the dog in its branches is labeled “Distinct teeth in mouth.” Bear patiently goes through the entire process, from marking the trees and drilling the holes to collecting the sap, building an evaporator and stacking firewood, filtering the syrup and finishing it on the kitchen stove, and finally ladling it into jars. But it’s not until the final pages that her two friends, who are almost at their wits’ end by this point with how long it’s taking to make one breakfast of pancakes, finally get their much-desired treat. The gentle cartoon illustrations perfectly match the tongue-in-cheek humor of the text. Bear wears clothing; Dog and Squirrel do not. The backmatter includes a map, illustrations of evaporator and spile types and a traditional sugarhouse, an author’s note, and some resources.
Readers are sure to request both rereads and pancakes…and maybe a few spiles and buckets of their own. (Informational picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4448-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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