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DARWIN'S SUPER-POOPING WORM SPECTACULAR

Name: DARWIN'S SUPER-POOPING WORM SPECTACULAR
Author: Polly Owen
ISBN: 978-0-7112-7597-3

by Polly Owen ; illustrated by Gwen Millward ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 3, 2023

Absorbing and entertaining—sure to have readers gazing at earthworms with a newfound, and deserved, appreciation.

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A lively treatment of the No. 2 area of Charles Darwin’s interest in the natural world.

Fascinated by earthworms, Darwin felt that they had more going for them than Victorian-era science gave them credit for. At that time, worms were considered “pests,” so Darwin set out to discover the lowly worm’s redeeming feature—its “superpower,” in this story’s accessible vernacular. First, he tested their eyesight (but discovered they have no eyes), then their hearing (no ears either). He did determine, though, that, in lieu of eyes and ears, a worm’s skin has receptors that sense vibrations as well as light and dark. Then Darwin realized that worms have a sense of smell for foods they like. But none of these, he felt, were really the superpower to change people’s minds about worms. Quite by accident, Darwin stumbled on the lowly earthworm’s superpower, and an amazing one it is—their poop helps make soil healthier, which in turn results in the plants and vegetables people depend on. As instructive as it is amusing, this story matches perky dialogue bubbles and text (narrated by an endearing bespectacled worm in a mortarboard) with winsome illustrations with just enough detail to amplify the storyline, all the while underscoring the significance of Darwin’s research. Secondary characters are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Absorbing and entertaining—sure to have readers gazing at earthworms with a newfound, and deserved, appreciation. (facts about worms, link to the Earthworm Society’s website) (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-7112-7597-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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BUTT OR FACE?

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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by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

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by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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A PLACE FOR RAIN

by Michelle Schaub ; illustrated by Blanca Gómez ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2024

Enticing and eco-friendly.

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Why and how to make a rain garden.

Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.

Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)