“On the first Earth Day Birthday the wide world gave to me . . . A bald eagle in a blue sky.” In cumulative verses more or less singable to the tune of “12 Days of Christmas,” Schnetzler introduces a menagerie of familiar creatures, up to “twelve wolves a-howling,” capped by an eloquent comment on the origins and purposes of Earth Day. Wallace’s dramatic, spread-filling, close-up animal paintings sometimes look faded, as if overexposed, but provide plenty of visual interest—and his wildlife often seems to be gazing expectantly out at viewers, as if asking “Well? What are you waiting for?” Young readers and listeners won’t miss the bluntly delivered message. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58469-053-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: DAW/Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
Another “humerus” study in comparative anatomy.
A comparison of select human and dinosaur bones connects readers with some of our more ancient predecessors.
Continuing the approach of Bone by Bone (2013) and Tooth by Tooth (2016), Levine points up parallels between fossilized skulls, ribs, toes, and other skeletal features and those of modern readers as well as prehistoric frills, horns, and the like that we don’t happen to sport. Some of this she presents as easy posers: what sort of dino would you be if you both had a long neck and “your vertebrae didn’t stop at your rear end but kept going and going and going?” Diplodocus, perhaps, or, she properly notes on the ensuing double gatefold, another type of sauropod. What if you had two finger bones per hand rather than five? T. Rex! If your pinky bone grew tremendously long? A pterosaur! Just for fun, in the simple but anatomically careful illustrations, Spookytooth temporarily alters members of a cast of, mostly, brown-skinned young museumgoers (two wearing hijabs) to reflect the exaggerated lengths, sizes, or other adaptations certain bones underwent in dinosaurs and several other types of extinct reptiles. Generous lists of websites and other information sources follow a revelation (that won’t come as a surprise to confirmed dino fans) that birds are dinosaurs too.
Another “humerus” study in comparative anatomy. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4677-9489-3
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Confusing topical drift muddles this quick but creditable dip into Newtonian physics.
A first introduction to what matter is—and isn’t.
Setting off on a potentially confusing tangent at the outset, Diehn opens with a discourse on how we use the word “matter” in common speech—as in “What’s the matter?” or “That doesn’t matter.” Following a perfunctory segue she then launches into her actual subject with a simple but not simplistic definition (“Matter is anything that takes up space and can be weighed”). She continues with easy-to-follow explanations of how matter (even air) can be weighed, how it comes in the states of solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, and finally how light is not matter but something else. Companion volumes on Energy, Forces, and Waves offer overviews that are likewise lucid, albeit similarly muddied by strained and, in the end, irrelevant word usages. All four surveys include questions and simple activities for readers. Shululu illustrates all four with a cast of wide-eyed, cherry-nosed figures of varying skin colors and their floppy-eared dog in active poses and, usually, outdoor settings.
Confusing topical drift muddles this quick but creditable dip into Newtonian physics. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61930-642-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nomad Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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