DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME

EXPLORE THE EARTH'S HABITATS DURING THE DAY AND NIGHT

Celebrating some of the multifarious life-forms in diverse Earth environments.

Profiles of varied diurnal and nocturnal inhabitants of global habitats.

Like the creators’ North Pole / South Pole (2020), this book is evenly divided between two types of animals; kids can start off reading about one group, then flip the volume over to learn about the other. Crepuscular animals mediate between the halves. Each page briefly identifies and explores a particular habitat, from the Australian outback to North American prairies. The same environments appear in both sections. Intriguingly labeled paragraphs describe noteworthy denizens (like the “rabbit imposter” vizcacha of the Andes Mountains) and the habitats themselves. The well-written text includes wonderfully specific details, like the speed at which a panther chameleon thrusts out its tongue, as well as some esoteric information, like the difference between monotremes and marsupials. (Though clownfish and sea anemones offer a perfect illustration of symbiosis, that term is not used to describe their relationship.) The visuals balance their focus between settings and inhabitants. On some pages, the animals are labeled with small-type pages; not all are (though they are identified in the main text), which may frustrate curious readers. As in the previous book, the absence of an index is disappointing, and the nighttime section avoids mentioning human light pollution. But the dramatic and colorful artwork is attention-grabbing and provides both context and detail.

Celebrating some of the multifarious life-forms in diverse Earth environments. (Informational picture book. 7-11)

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023

ISBN: 9780711283527

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Words & Pictures

Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023

1001 BEES

Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.

This book is buzzing with trivia.

Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.

Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)

Pub Date: May 18, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021

EVERYTHING AWESOME ABOUT SPACE AND OTHER GALACTIC FACTS!

From the Everything Awesome About… series

A quick flight but a blast from first to last.

A charged-up roundup of astro-facts.

Having previously explored everything awesome about both dinosaurs (2019) and sharks (2020), Lowery now heads out along a well-traveled route, taking readers from the Big Bang through a planet-by-planet tour of the solar system and then through a selection of space-exploration highlights. The survey isn’t unique, but Lowery does pour on the gosh-wow by filling each hand-lettered, poster-style spread with emphatic colors and graphics. He also goes for the awesome in his selection of facts—so that readers get nothing about Newton’s laws of motion, for instance, but will come away knowing that just 65 years separate the Wright brothers’ flight and the first moon landing. They’ll also learn that space is silent but smells like burned steak (according to astronaut Chris Hadfield), that thanks to microgravity no one snores on the International Space Station, and that Buzz Aldrin was the first man on the moon…to use the bathroom. And, along with a set of forgettable space jokes (OK, one: “Why did the carnivore eat the shooting star?” “Because it was meteor”), the backmatter features drawing instructions for budding space artists and a short but choice reading list. Nods to Katherine Johnson and NASA’s other African American “computers” as well as astronomer Vera Rubin give women a solid presence in the otherwise male and largely White cast of humans. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A quick flight but a blast from first to last. (Informational picture book. 7-10)

Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-338-35974-9

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021

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