Sleek design coupled with engaging images and information make this a winner for curious kids.
A visual compendium spanning a broad array of topics.
Vibrant photography, bright illustrations, and clear diagrams distinguish this beginner’s encyclopedia, which covers a wide range of topics divided into 10 broad sections: “All About You,” “Down to Earth,” “Big Wide World,” “From the Ground Up,” “Creature Feature,” “Dino-Roar!,” “Time Machine,” “Bright Ideas,” “Things That Zoom!,” and “Out of This World.” Each section is divided into focused chapters where the information is organized into logical chunks. Visuals dominate the full-color two-page spreads, which contain short paragraphs and text boxes that are jam-packed with fun facts and trivia. For example, the third chapter, which focuses on maps, offers the tidbit that “Vietnam is home to the world’s largest cave. Some parts of Son Doong are so big that a skyscraper could fit inside. A river flows through it, and a rainforest grows there, too!” The thoughtful layout includes color-coded chapter headings and topic icons that match the table of contents, allowing for quick identification and easy browsing. The text is appropriate for different reading levels: The book uses simpler vocabulary in a larger font size for labels and headers, while the longer explanations are suited for stronger readers or for adults to read aloud. The human figures in the illustrations and photographs are diverse in race and ethnicity.
Sleek design coupled with engaging images and information make this a winner for curious kids. (glossary, additional reading, tips for parents, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781426374029
Page Count: 272
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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