Subtitled ``A Prehistoric Creature Feature,'' this book explains that it all began in the ocean. Troll and Matsen (Planet Ocean, 1994) tell how amphibians, reptiles, mammals, Einstein, Elvis, and everyone else started as fish some ``550 million birthdays ago.'' In keeping with the evolutionary theory, the book takes readers on a journey from the first visible Cambrian life forms in the ocean through the development of backbones, fins, jaws, teeth, and tails to the Quaternary present. This prehistoric road map through time, marked by a ticker-tape style timeline running across the bottom of each spread, introduces some bizarre-looking monstrous creatures such as eurypterids, trilobites, prehistoric sharks, giant marine reptiles, and other ``way cool creatures of long ago.'' Headings—``The Lucky Fish Gets the Cheeseburger'' and ``Good Gracious, Cretaceous'' among them—serve as attention- getters. Written with a smattering of grade-school humor, the irreverent tone of the text demystifies otherwise complex theories and ideas about evolution and paleontology. While occasionally silly, this snappy treatment fills a gap even where dinosaur books abound, tackling a difficult subject riddled with unknowns, shreds of evidence, and scientific guesswork. Clues from skeletons, shapes, and fossils provide inspiration for the largely fanciful illustrations presented in neon pastel drawings with appropriately eerie, cave-like lighting, and a disclaimer about licenses Troll took when grouping species. (index) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7+)
Pub Date: Sept. 5, 1996
ISBN: 1-883672-41-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tricycle
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love.
A 13-year-old biracial girl longs to build the house of her dreams.
For Lou Bulosan-Nelson, normal is her “gigantic extended family squished into Lola’s for every holiday imaginable.” She shares a bedroom with her Filipina mother, Minda—a former interior-design major and current nurse-to-be—in Lola Celina’s San Francisco home. From her deceased white father, Michael, Lou inherited “not-so-Filipino features,” his love for architecture, and some land. Lou’s quietude implies her keen eye for details, but her passion for creating with her hands resonates loudly. Pining for something to claim as her own, she plans to construct a house from the ground up. When her mom considers moving out of state for a potential job and Lou’s land is at risk of being auctioned off, Lou stays resilient, gathering support from both friends and family to make her dream a reality. Respicio authentically depicts the richness of Philippine culture, incorporating Filipino language, insights into Lou’s family history, and well-crafted descriptions of customs, such as the birdlike Tinikling dance and eating kamayan style (with one’s hands), throughout. Lou’s story gives voice to Filipino youth, addressing cultural differences, the importance of bayanihan (community), and the true meaning of home.
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1794-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Thought-provoking and charming.
A sophisticated robot—with the capacity to use senses of sight, hearing, and smell—is washed to shore on an island, the only robot survivor of a cargo of 500.
When otters play with her protective packaging, the robot is accidently activated. Roz, though without emotions, is intelligent and versatile. She can observe and learn in service of both her survival and her principle function: to help. Brown links these basic functions to the kind of evolution Roz undergoes as she figures out how to stay dry and intact in her wild environment—not easy, with pine cones and poop dropping from above, stormy weather, and a family of cranky bears. She learns to understand and eventually speak the language of the wild creatures (each species with its different “accent”). An accident leaves her the sole protector of a baby goose, and Roz must ask other creatures for help to shelter and feed the gosling. Roz’s growing connection with her environment is sweetly funny, reminiscent of Randall Jarrell’s The Animal Family. At every moment Roz’s actions seem plausible and logical yet surprisingly full of something like feeling. Robot hunters with guns figure into the climax of the story as the outside world intrudes. While the end to Roz’s benign and wild life is startling and violent, Brown leaves Roz and her companions—and readers—with hope.
Thought-provoking and charming. (Science fiction/fantasy. 7-11)Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-38199-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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