Blooms with cheer.
Happy grade schoolers and their teacher create a pollinator corridor in their city.
Rhythmic verse describes the creation of a chain that “link[s] / meadow / to house / to store / to park,” while illustrations depict the children gathering public support, scouting likely places for these “pollinator pit stops,” planting, and harvesting. Schaub’s text varies in line length as well as frequency and placement of end rhyme. The effect is a beautiful read-aloud that resists a singsong cadence, tumbling along with as much confidence in its success as the children seem to have in their project’s. Gómez creates bright double-page spreads, using collage to populate them with beaming, racially diverse children with oversize heads and simplified features. Flitting among them are butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, moths, and bats, many of them also smiling. Simple though her compositions appear, Gómez adds details that will draw little listeners in. One trolley commuter rides with nose buried in a book; a cat watches the goings-on from a window. Sharp-eyed listeners will see the difference these kids have made: A fairly sterile town center with a vacant shopfront is festooned with blooms at the end, a new flower shop displays its wares, and pollinators fill the skies. Two pages of notes explain the importance of pollinator pathways and provide tips for pollinator-friendly gardening.
Blooms with cheer. (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781324082118
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
So rocket science can be fun.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
If they haven’t already thought about their futures (and they probably haven’t), toddlers and preschoolers might start planning after perusing this cheerful first guide to scientific careers. Plump-cheeked, wide-eyed tykes with various skin and hair colors introduce different professions, including zoologist, meteorologist, aerospace engineer, and environmental scientist, depicted with cues to tip readers off to what the jobs entail. The simple text presents the sometimes-long, tongue-twisting career names while helpfully defining them in comprehensible terms. For example, an environmental scientist “helps take care of our world,” and a zoologist is defined as someone who “studies how animals behave.” Scientists in general are identified as those who “study, learn, and solve problems.” Such basic language not only benefits youngsters, but also offers adults sharing the book easy vocabulary with which to expand on conversations with kids about the professions. The title’s ebullient appearance is helped along by the typography: The jobs’ names are set in all caps, printed in color and in a larger font than the surrounding text, and emphasized with exclamation points. Additionally, the buoyant watercolors feature clues to what scientists in these fields work with, such as celestial bodies for astronomers. The youngest listeners won’t necessarily get all of this, but the book works as a rudimentary introduction to STEM topics and a shoutout to scientific endeavors.
So rocket science can be fun. (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62354-149-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Adults looking for an easy entry into this subject will not be disappointed.
This book presents a simplified explanation of the role the atmosphere plays in controlling climate.
The authors present a planet as a ball and its atmosphere as a blanket that envelops the ball. If the blanket is thick, the planet will be hot, as is the case for Venus. If the blanket is thin, the planet is cold, as with Mars. Planet Earth has a blanket that traps “just the right amount of heat.” The authors explain trees, animals, and oceans are part of what makes Earth’s atmosphere “just right.” “But…Uh-oh! People on Earth are changing the blanket!” The book goes on to explain how some human activities are sending “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere, thus “making the blanket heavier and thicker” and “making Earth feel unwell.” In the case of a planet feeling unwell, what would the symptoms be? Sea-level rises that lead to erosion, flooding, and island loss, along with extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, blizzards, and wildfires. Ending on a constructive note, the authors name a few of the remedies to “help our Earth before it’s too late!” By using the blanket analogy, alongside simple and clear illustrations, this otherwise complex topic becomes very accessible to young children, though caregivers will need to help with the specialized vocabulary.
Adults looking for an easy entry into this subject will not be disappointed. (Board book. 3-4)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8082-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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