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
Moving and poetic.
A motherless boy is forced to abandon his domesticated fox when his father decides to join soldiers in an approaching war.
Twelve-year-old Peter found his loyal companion, Pax, as an orphaned kit while still grieving his own mother’s death. Peter’s difficult and often harsh father said he could keep the fox “for now” but five years later insists the boy leave Pax by the road when he takes Peter to his grandfather’s house, hundreds of miles away. Peter’s journey back to Pax and Pax’s steadfastness in waiting for Peter’s return result in a tale of survival, intrinsic connection, and redemption. The battles between warring humans in the unnamed conflict remain remote, but the oncoming wave of deaths is seen through Pax’s eyes as woodland creatures are blown up by mines. While Pax learns to negotiate the complications of surviving in the wild and relating to other foxes, Peter breaks his foot and must learn to trust a seemingly eccentric woman named Vola who battles her own ghosts of war. Alternating chapters from the perspectives of boy and fox are perfectly paced and complementary. Only Peter, Pax, Vola, and three of Pax’s fox companions are named, conferring a spare, fablelike quality. Every moment in the graceful, fluid narrative is believable. Klassen’s cover art has a sense of contained, powerful stillness. (Interior illustrations not seen.)
Moving and poetic. (Animal fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-237701-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
A verdant, enchanting read let down by poorly executed diverse representation.
Old riddles provide a modern girl with a summer adventure.
Caspia Turkel would rather stay in her small Maine town than spend 11 weeks (the whole summer!) in Brooklyn, even though her parents are excited about the opportunities awaiting them. Within a hand-painted dresser in their rented apartment, Caspia finds a stack of pale-green linen envelopes, tied with a velvet ribbon. The letters inside were sent in the 1950s and ’60s to a girl named Minna from her loving sister, Rosalind, and they contain a series of riddles about plants. Even though she’s never given much thought to growing things before, Caspia dives into this scavenger hunt and learns unexpected things about what Rosalind dubbed the “Green Kingdom.” She also meets amazing people on her journeys around her urban neighborhood, which includes the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The broad range of featured plants includes many that are likely to be familiar to readers. Co-authors Hartung, who has botanical expertise, and Funke, whose original German text was translated by Anna Schmitt Funke, add magic to the mundane, collaborating to create a realistic story that nevertheless feels wonderfully fantastical. Castrillón’s delicate illustrations have an old-fashioned feel and provide marvelous atmosphere as well as effectively highlighting the various plant species. Caspia, who’s white, makes a diverse group of friends in Brooklyn, but many of their portrayals feel exoticizing and othering, marring the attempt to celebrate diversity. (This review was updated to reflect further communication from the publisher regarding the translation credit.)
A verdant, enchanting read let down by poorly executed diverse representation. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780593959305
Page Count: 224
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
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