Unsubtle empowerment for young environmentalists.
Almost–fourth-grader Cricket and her friends have a second adventure learning about, and helping, wildlife in Waterton (Ospreys in Danger, 2014).
From the start, readers are immersed in Cricket’s life as the daughter of a Canadian wildlife ranger: Dad lets Cricket ride with him to the scene of a “bear jam,” a traffic snarl caused by tourists gaping at a bear. It is close to the migration time of two-toed salamanders, and Cricket learns from a scientist that the creature’s population has been shrinking. Can Cricket and her friends help? The text’s simplicity is on target for beginning readers. Throughout the 10 short chapters—each headed by a sketch of an endearing-looking salamander—didactic conversations and experiences provide facts about bears, cats, deer, orcas, and especially Alberta’s two salamander species. The information is sound, but contrasting attempts at realistic conversation and especially at humor feel forced. The black-and-white pencil art is detailed and attractive, but it confirms the characters’ lack of diversity—faces are white, even in crowd scenes. The fact that the scientist studying the two-toed salamanders is a woman is almost a blow to feminism, since it is Cricket’s brother who figures out an invention to help the struggling creatures and then Cricket and her friends who manage to raise funds for the endeavor. Still, simple, accurate descriptions of specific research methods and of salamander features shine.
Unsubtle empowerment for young environmentalists. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1123-2
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure.
It’s not truffles but doubloons that tickle this porcine wayfarer’s fancy.
Funke and Meyer make another foray into chapter-book fare after Emma and the Blue Genie (2014). Here, mariner Stout Sam and deckhand Pip eke out a comfortable existence on Butterfly Island ferrying cargo to and fro. Life is good, but it takes an unexpected turn when a barrel washes ashore containing a pig with a skull-and-crossbones pendant around her neck. It soon becomes clear that this little piggy, dubbed Julie, has the ability to sniff out treasure—lots of it—in the sea. The duo is pleased with her skills, but pride goeth before the hog. Stout Sam hands out some baubles to the local children, and his largess attracts the unwanted attention of Barracuda Bill and his nasty minions. Now they’ve pignapped Julie, and it’s up to the intrepid sailors to save the porker and their own bacon. The succinct word count meets the needs of kids looking for early adventure fare. The tale is slight, bouncy, and amusing, though Julie is never the piratical buccaneer the book’s cover seems to suggest. Meanwhile, Meyer’s cheery watercolors are as comfortable diagramming the different parts of a pirate vessel as they are rendering the dread pirate captain himself.
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37544-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
A floral fantasia for casual browsers as well as budding botanists.
Spirited illustrations brighten a large-format introduction to flowers and their pollinators.
Showing a less Eurocentric outlook than in his Big Book of Birds (2019), Zommer employs agile brushwork and a fondness for graceful lines and bright colors to bring to life bustling bouquets from a range of habitats, from rainforest to desert. Often switching from horizontal to vertical orientations, the topical spreads progress from overviews of major floral families and broad looks at plant anatomy and reproduction to close-ups of select flora—roses and tulips to Venus flytraps and stinking flowers. The book then closes with a shoutout to the conservators and other workers at Kew Gardens (this is a British import) and quick suggestions for young balcony or windowsill gardeners. In most of the low-angled scenes, fancifully drawn avian or insect pollinators with human eyes hover around all the large, luscious blooms, as do one- or two-sentence comments that generally add cogent observations or insights: “All parts of the deadly nightshade plant contain poison. It has been used to poison famous emperors, kings and warriors throughout history.” (Confusingly for the audience, the accurate but limited assertion that bees “often visit blue or purple flowers” appears to be contradicted by an adjacent view of several zeroing in on a yellow toadflax.) Human figures, or, in one scene, hands, are depicted in a variety of sizes, shapes, and skin colors.
A floral fantasia for casual browsers as well as budding botanists. (glossary, index) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-500-65199-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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