No creature should be locked up for life.
After then-President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (who is unnamed in the text) arranged for the delivery of an elephant to Pakistan in the mid-1980s, the year-old calf, Kaavan, was kept chained in the Marghazar Zoo for 35 years. For 22 of those years, Kaavan was kept with Saheli, a female elephant, but after her death, Kaavan was left alone. Thankfully, there is a happy ending to the tale, as concerned people around the world—including Egyptian veterinarian Dr. Amir Khalil and pop star Cher—raised awareness of Kaavan’s miserable and lonely life, and he was eventually relocated to Cambodia’s Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary, where he had more room and other elephants to socialize with. The story explores Kaavan and Dr. Khalil’s relationship and follows the journey to ensure that Kaavan would not be lonely anymore. The real star of this beautifully told story is the artwork, which deftly captures Kaavan’s pain. The illustrations—gouache and acrylic on wood—feature bands of grain below the painted surface that give a hazy beauty to the pages and a remarkable amount of texture to Kaavan’s skin. An author’s note and a brief list of sources provide additional information for curious readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sad, sublime, and surely something special. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-36459-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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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. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
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