An easy nature walk.
Rhymed clues challenge young readers to identify the owners of 12 sets of feet.
The guessing game isn’t a hard one, at least until the closer. The answer to each riddle, revealed with a page turn, not only completes a rhyme, but actually can be spotted immediately—in part, at least—in Han’s artfully composed nature scene. Hirsch provides enrichment by slipping nature facts into her verses, which she goes on to explain at greater length in a closing summation. The creature perched on a flower “testing out the food supply,” for instance, turns out to be a butterfly, who is literally tasting the petals with her feet before laying eggs, and thanks to versatile appendages that can “walk flat—or knuckle under,” chimpanzees are at home whether on the ground or climbing a “vine trapeze.” The author and illustrator throw a curveball at the end by suddenly switching away from the animal kingdom for a final set of “feet” that land “in a cold, red place” but “were built for just this spot.” The stated answer is the “Mars Robot” with hooked wheels. Readers might find it hard to pull any useful details about these Martian feet from the accompanying blurry image of a very small vehicle in a rugged landscape; still, they will come away with new information about a variety of earthly ones. Children and other human figures in the illustrations are racially diverse.
An easy nature walk. (sources) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781419769269
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another playful imagination-stretcher.
Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.
As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.
Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781339049052
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched.
An amiable introduction to our thrifty, sociable, teeming insect cousins.
Bunting notes that all the ants on Earth weigh roughly the same as all the people and observes that ants (like, supposedly, us) love recycling, helping others, and taking “micronaps.” They, too, live in groups, and their “superpower” is an ability to work together to accomplish amazing things. Bunting goes on to describe different sorts of ants within the colony (“Drone. Male. Does no housework. Takes to the sky. Reproduces. Drops dead”), how they communicate using pheromones, and how they get from egg to adult. He concludes that we could learn a lot from them that would help us leave our planet in better shape than it was when we arrived. If he takes a pass on mentioning a few less positive shared traits (such as our tendency to wage war on one another), still, his comparisons do invite young readers to observe the natural world more closely and to reflect on our connections to it. In the simple illustrations, generic black ants look up at viewers with little googly eyes while scurrying about the pages gathering food, keeping nests clean, and carrying outsized burdens.
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567784
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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