Light on specific information but big on visual impact.
A selection of endangered or threatened creatures play peekaboo with viewers in this vivid gallery of close-up portraits.
Extracted from Endangered, his much larger 2017 coffee-table book for adults, Flach’s photographed figures are all riveting—mostly extreme close-ups, all reproduced with knife-edge clarity, and generally posed against flat black backgrounds that make the colors and patterns of feathers, fur, and scales pop. The design is finicky. Portraits, printed hints (“I am a gentle giant with a heart-shaped nose”; “I may be a very big cat, but you won’t hear me meow”), the titular refrain, and occasional filler scenes of concealing foliage or further details are all arranged to incorporate either die-cut holes through which the full pictures can be glimpsed or small uncut circles that seem to wish they were die cuts. Still, viewers will likely barely notice the inconsistency, having been brought eye to eye with animals including a panda, a polar bear, an axolotl, a rolled-up white-bellied pangolin, a magisterial Philippine eagle, and other rarities large and small, each of which positively radiates a fierce, expressive presence. Preceding a final page of general advice for planetary caretakers, the animals regather to explain how deforestation, pollution, and other negative human behavior have threatened their continued existence.
Light on specific information but big on visual impact. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3646-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
A winning heads up for younger readers just becoming aware of the wider natural world.
An appeal to share concern for 12 familiar but threatened, endangered, or critically endangered animal species.
The subjects of Marino’s intimate, close-up portraits—fairly naturalistically rendered, though most are also smiling, glancing up at viewers through human eyes, and posed at rest with a cute youngling on lap or flank—steal the show. Still, Clinton’s accompanying tally of facts about each one’s habitat and daily routines, to which the title serves as an ongoing refrain, adds refreshingly unsentimental notes: “A single giraffe kick can kill a lion!”; “[S]hivers of whale sharks can sense a drop of blood if it’s in the water nearby, though they eat mainly plankton.” Along with tucking in collective nouns for each animal (some not likely to be found in major, or any, dictionaries: an “embarrassment” of giant pandas?), the author systematically cites geographical range, endangered status, and assumed reasons for that status, such as pollution, poaching, or environmental change. She also explains the specific meaning of “endangered” and some of its causes before closing with a set of doable activities (all uncontroversial aside from the suggestion to support and visit zoos) and a list of international animal days to celebrate.
A winning heads up for younger readers just becoming aware of the wider natural world. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51432-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Just the ticket for an armchair outing to the red planet.
Good news! Planet Marvelous is looking forward to visitors from Planet Awesome.
With the same exuberance that propelled readers deep into her Ocean! Waves for All (2020), illustrated by David Litchfield, and its three predecessors in the Our Universe series, McAnulty looks to the next planet out for a fresh set of enticing natural wonders. Billing itself a “party planet” (“I want to be the FIRST planet with human guests”), the russet raconteur trumpets its unique attractions. These range from moons Deimos and Phobos (“I know Earth is totally jealous”) to Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, which is “four times as deep as the Grand Canyon! And not nearly as crowded.” Sure, unlike Spirit, Opportunity, and other rovers, human visitors will have to pack their own water and oxygen in addition to traveling millions of miles…but given a few technological advances, soon enough it’ll be time to “get this party started!” Prospective tourists diverse of age and race are dancing already on Earth in a final scene in anticipation of a trip to our “reMARkable” neighbor. Quiz questions and a timeline cap an enticement that echoes Susanna Leonard Hill’s Mars’ First Friends: Come on Over, Rovers! (2020), illustrated by Elisa Paganelli, in its fizzy mix of fact and fancy. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Just the ticket for an armchair outing to the red planet. (sources) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-25688-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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