Certain to cultivate a love of nature in all who pick it up.
An aptly named child proves that anyone, anywhere, can be a birder.
Sparrow, a Black girl with her hair in twists, lives in a bustling town filled with noises such as car horns and barking dogs, but the town still has plenty of birds to observe. She heads outside, carrying a sketch pad and crayons, and “uses her eyes and ears.” She notices the ways different species move (“Thrashers hide in the bushes. Robins hop on the ground”), their colors (“Mourning doves are brown and gray”), and their different songs. Burgess includes birds that are reasonably common in the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. and Canada. The backmatter concludes with information about each of the 17 species that Sparrow sees, including size, color, habitat, and diet, as might be found in a birding guidebook. Anthony’s lively digital illustrations range from vignettes to double-page spreads. The book includes a nice variety, from close-ups to more distant scenes featuring a wide-eyed, animated child watching through her binoculars or mimicking the birds’ behaviors. Realistically, several images feature a yellow bird that never does get identified. In an author’s note, Burgess, an ornithologist, describes growing up in the suburbs, observing the birds around her; she stresses that readers need not live in a rural environment to become birders. Amid recent efforts to diversify bird-watching, this inviting work is especially welcome.
Certain to cultivate a love of nature in all who pick it up. (bird-watching tips, resources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9780316307222
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader!
Fun with friends makes for a great day.
Norbit, a salmon-colored worm with a pink kerchief, joyfully greets the day and everyone he encounters. “Hello, friends! It’s time for fun with the sun! Let’s play!” He and his menagerie of forest pals—including the sun, who grows limbs and descends from the sky—exuberantly engage in various forms of physical activity such as jumping, going down a slide, spinning around, and watching the clouds go by. Young readers will readily relate, as these are games that most children are familiar with. As day turns to night, Norbit says farewell to Sun and welcomes Moon with an invitation to continue the fun. Watkins has created a vivid world of movement and merriment. Her illustrations feature bright bursts of color that match the energy of the text, with most sentences ending in an exclamation point. The author/illustrator incorporates many elements that make for an ideal early-reading experience (despite the use of a contraction or two): art free from clutter, text consisting of words with only one or two syllables, and repetition and recurring bits, such as a continued game of hide-and-seek with Sun. Inspired by never-before-seen sketches from the Dr. Seuss Collection archives at the University of California San Diego, this is the first title for Seuss Studios, a new imprint for original stories from “emerging authors and illustrators” who “honor Seuss’s hallmark spirit of creativity and imagination.”
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader! (author's note) (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593646212
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Seuss Studios
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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