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WHO'S YAWNING NOW?

Name: WHO'S YAWNING NOW?
Author: Nicki Geigert
ISBN: 978-1-951775-83-4

by Nicki Geigert ; photographed by Nicki Geigert ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 18, 2020

A clever concept and striking photographs, but the text falls short.

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Wild animals explain why they yawn—and more about their species—in this guide by wildlife photographer Geigert.

Animals yawn for different reasons, and some animals “catch” each other’s yawns, just like humans do. On each page, Geigert offers an entry from the animal’s point of view and one photograph. At the top, a green banner provides short, engaging text designed to be read aloud to, or with, preschool readers. Most pages offer a reason behind the yawn in the photograph: “I yawn when the bugs bite me,” the dhole informs readers, then asks, “Do you yawn when you get bug bites?” Descriptions compare and contrast animal and human responses—“Does your mommy yawn also?” asks the wallaby. Young audiences will giggle at the comparisons. (The jaguar encourages readers to try to yawn with their tongues hanging out, something young readers are sure to attempt to imitate.) Below the text for young readers, the smallish photograph is accompanied by longer text for independent readers describing more details about the animal: habitat, physical characteristics and behaviors, and endangerment status (“There are over 100 species of Lemurs, and we are the most critically endangered animal in the world. We are only found in Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world”). This section varies in quality across the book; the first-person narrative is sometimes clunky, especially when Geigert offers facts that seem beyond the animal’s ken. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t suggest how young conservationists can help endangered animals. Geigert’s yawning photographs are fantastic, however, catching a camel, hippo, antelope, and more with mouths agape, so it’s a shame that the photographs aren’t larger.

A clever concept and striking photographs, but the text falls short.

Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-951775-83-4

Page Count: 42

Publisher: ReadersMagnet LLC

Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2023

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

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BUTT OR FACE?

From the Butt or Face? series

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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I LIKE THE FARM

From the I Like To Read series

by Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 2017

Simple, encouraging text, charming photographs, straightforward, unpretentious diversity, and adorable animals—what’s not to...

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This entry-level early reader/picture book pairs children with farm animals.

Using a simple, effective template—a full-page photograph on the recto page and a bordered spot photo above the text on the verso—Rotner delivers an amiable picture book that presents racially and ethnically diverse kids interacting (mostly in the cuddling department) with the adult and baby animals typically found on a farm. Chickens, chicks, cats, kittens, dogs, puppies, pigs, piglets, cows, and calves are all represented. While a couple of double-page spreads show the larger adult animals—pigs and cows—without a child, most of the rest portray a delighted child hugging a compliant critter. The text, simple and repetitive, changes only the name for the animal depicted in the photo on that spread: “I like the cat”; “I like the piglet.” In this way, reading comprehension for new readers is supported in an enjoyable, appealing way, since the photo of the animal reinforces the new word. It’s hard to go wrong combining cute kids with adorable animals, but special kudos must be given for the very natural way Rotner has included diversity—it’s especially gratifying to see diversity normalized and validated early, at the same time that reading comprehension is taught.

Simple, encouraging text, charming photographs, straightforward, unpretentious diversity, and adorable animals—what’s not to like? (Picture book/early reader. 2-6)