The art is something to see, but the perfunctory text reads like an afterthought.
Twenty wild creatures strut distinctive horns, tongues, feet, scales, and other prominent features.
From the hummingbird hawk-moth to the blue-footed booby, the aptly named blobfish to the narwhal and the babirusa, land and sea creatures from various parts of the world pose with strong, boldly textured presence in natural settings in Garland’s digitally colored woodcuts—mostly as single subjects, many chasing or chowing down on favored prey, and two (a male frigatebird and the aforementioned booby) posturing before prospective mates. But if the pictures reward attention, the accompanying commentary generally just singles out one physical feature for each and offers, at best, sketchy explanations of its function. “My large nose keeps out dust and helps me breathe,” says the saiga antelope. (Don’t most noses do that?) “I have large tusks, but I don’t use them for fighting,” says a babirusa, leaving readers in the dark about what they are used for. Similarly unenlightening are opaque follow-up notes, which mention that the Sunda flying lemur “is a cobego and not a lemur” and that jellyfish “are not fish; they are Scyphozoa,” plus a mistaken implication that only male narwhals have tusks. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
The art is something to see, but the perfunctory text reads like an afterthought. (glossary, bibliography, index) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-8234-5102-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
A winning heads up for younger readers just becoming aware of the wider natural world.
An appeal to share concern for 12 familiar but threatened, endangered, or critically endangered animal species.
The subjects of Marino’s intimate, close-up portraits—fairly naturalistically rendered, though most are also smiling, glancing up at viewers through human eyes, and posed at rest with a cute youngling on lap or flank—steal the show. Still, Clinton’s accompanying tally of facts about each one’s habitat and daily routines, to which the title serves as an ongoing refrain, adds refreshingly unsentimental notes: “A single giraffe kick can kill a lion!”; “[S]hivers of whale sharks can sense a drop of blood if it’s in the water nearby, though they eat mainly plankton.” Along with tucking in collective nouns for each animal (some not likely to be found in major, or any, dictionaries: an “embarrassment” of giant pandas?), the author systematically cites geographical range, endangered status, and assumed reasons for that status, such as pollution, poaching, or environmental change. She also explains the specific meaning of “endangered” and some of its causes before closing with a set of doable activities (all uncontroversial aside from the suggestion to support and visit zoos) and a list of international animal days to celebrate.
A winning heads up for younger readers just becoming aware of the wider natural world. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51432-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Just the ticket for an armchair outing to the red planet.
Good news! Planet Marvelous is looking forward to visitors from Planet Awesome.
With the same exuberance that propelled readers deep into her Ocean! Waves for All (2020), illustrated by David Litchfield, and its three predecessors in the Our Universe series, McAnulty looks to the next planet out for a fresh set of enticing natural wonders. Billing itself a “party planet” (“I want to be the FIRST planet with human guests”), the russet raconteur trumpets its unique attractions. These range from moons Deimos and Phobos (“I know Earth is totally jealous”) to Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, which is “four times as deep as the Grand Canyon! And not nearly as crowded.” Sure, unlike Spirit, Opportunity, and other rovers, human visitors will have to pack their own water and oxygen in addition to traveling millions of miles…but given a few technological advances, soon enough it’ll be time to “get this party started!” Prospective tourists diverse of age and race are dancing already on Earth in a final scene in anticipation of a trip to our “reMARkable” neighbor. Quiz questions and a timeline cap an enticement that echoes Susanna Leonard Hill’s Mars’ First Friends: Come on Over, Rovers! (2020), illustrated by Elisa Paganelli, in its fizzy mix of fact and fancy. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Just the ticket for an armchair outing to the red planet. (sources) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-25688-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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