A PATHWAY FOR POLLINATORS

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.