by Meredith Hooper & illustrated by Lucia deLeiris ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2004
Despite some evident seams, this case study in plate tectonics is valuable for its unusual approach. Hooper traces the origin and history of an imaginary Antarctic island. First, its molten material wells up on a primeval ocean floor. Fast forward to 200 million years ago, and it’s a shoreline where dinosaurs roam amid lush greenery—then so on, in stages, as it slowly pulls away from the mainland supercontinent, and today, still moving “at the speed a fingernail grows,” makes a ruggedly rocky home for mosses, lichens, insects, birds, and penguins. The author describes that supercontinent’s breakup, but deLeiris’s matching map doesn’t show up until much later on—after island scenes abruptly give way to spreads on fault lines, earthquakes, and continental drift in general. A good supplementary purchase, but with staid-looking art and haphazard organization, it’s not going to drift past Helen Roney Sattler’s Our Patchwork Planet (1995). (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-670-05882-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2004
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by Anne Miranda & illustrated by Anne Miranda ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1999
Miranda’s book counts the monsters gathering at a birthday party, while a simple rhyming text keeps the tally and surveys the action: “Seven starved monsters are licking the dishes./Eight blow out candles and make birthday wishes.” The counting proceeds to ten, then by tens to fifty, then gradually returns to one, which makes the monster’s mother, a purple pin-headed octopus, very happy. The book is surprisingly effective due to Powell’s artwork; the color has texture and density, as if it were poured onto the page, but the real attention-getter is the singularity of every monster attendee. They are highly individual and, therefore, eminently countable. As the numbers start crawling upward, it is both fun and a challenge to try to recognize monsters who have appeared in previous pages, or to attempt to stay focused when counting the swirling or bunched creatures. The story has glints of humor, and in combination with the illustrations is a grand addition to the counting shelf. (Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201835-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999
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by Jerry Pallotta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000
Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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