A lovely, whimsical celebration of Winnipeg’s varied architecture.
Bridgman’s fanciful painted depiction of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s landmarks introduces young readers to the many architectural wonders in the Canadian city.
Using the framework of owls flying over the city and noticing various buildings and structures, this alphabet book assigns a Winnipeg landmark to each letter. The alphabet pages feature spare text, highlighting the featured letter each time it appears. Paired letters spread rhymes across subsequent pages: “C is for Children’s Museum, a place for all. / D is for Dominion Bank—those columns are tall.” Detailed discussions of each landmark fill the later pages, written to be engaging for independent young readers interested in the details of each location. While the landmarks may be very familiar to Winnipeg residents, readers from other locations could not be blamed for wondering how so many marvels fit into one city. The Flying Saucer—a circular, elevated apartment building—is illustrated as flying above the city on a floating island. The Royal Canadian Mint, though it matches the shape of the actual building, is made to appear like a glowing mountain with a sun behind it (a snowscape occupies the foreground). Thunderbird House is depicted as sitting on rainbow tiles; the Exchange District has a dragon curled around one of its buildings. These whimsical touches make for captivating images that locals will surely appreciate, but they may confuse nonresidents. Luckily, the highly detailed descriptions in the back half of the book provide real context for each building and showcase the many different types of structures included, including government institutions, housing, museums, bridges, and more. While Bridgman sometimes stretches for her rhymes with convoluted sentence structures (“stories and stars here do meet”), overall, each page is accessible for young lap readers; the end pages, and Bridgman’s beautiful art (each page features a hidden, or not so hidden, owl), extend the book’s appeal to a middle-grade audience, who could use the text for school reports.
A lovely, whimsical celebration of Winnipeg’s varied architecture.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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