A well-focused, beautiful, and informative introduction to the arboreal world.
How do trees grow?
The team that produced Plants Can’t Sit Still (2016) uses the same winning formula of a few well-chosen words and appealing images to describe how trees can become the “tallest living thing” on Earth. Hirsch’s poetic text starts at the beginning, with seeds and sprouts, going on to describe how young trees use sunlight to feed themselves, take in water from the ground and carbon dioxide from the air, and return oxygen and water to the air. As trees grow taller, their roots grow wider, “intertwine with the roots of their neighbors...and help hold the tree up.” Seeds fall, and the cycle begins again. This sequence is splendidly illustrated with Posada’s textured, stylized, though accurate cut-paper collages and watercolors, each spread showing a different stage. One spread must be turned sideways, emphasizing the incredible height of some trees. The backmatter explains the process in more detail, introducing relevant vocabulary and answering some anticipated questions. There are also photographs of some of the world’s tallest tree species and a map showing where they can be found. With graceful, easy-to-read-aloud text and illustrations that would show well to a group, this would be a welcome addition to a nature-themed storytime. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A well-focused, beautiful, and informative introduction to the arboreal world. (activities, further reading) (Informational picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781728440873
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The overarching concept, introducing children to science subjects using humor, is solid; too bad the verse doesn’t rise to...
Whimsical rhymes describe a range of science topics for a younger audience.
Magnetism, geology, and the life cycle of a flea are just a few of the topics explored in this bright, energetic picture book. Appealing illustrations show a diverse array of characters gardening, building, sensing, and experimenting, with forays into the solar system and the animal kingdom as well. Each full-page spread presents a poem, and it is here that the book begins to fall down. The poems vary in structure: Some are rhyming couplets, some alternate rhymed and unrhymed lines, a few utilize repetition. However, only some of the stanzas effectively utilize meter, so readers are often required to wrench syllables around in order to get them to scan, marring the reading experience whether it’s to oneself or to an audience. The wacky poem about chemistry, for example, concludes “Hurray for the Captain! / The King of Chemistry! / His all-purpose cleaner / is also earth friend-ly!” Some of the scenarios are fun, others are more meditative, and the titular piece seems intended to encourage girls in STEM, but the educational possibilities are overall stymied by the versification.
The overarching concept, introducing children to science subjects using humor, is solid; too bad the verse doesn’t rise to the occasion. (Picture book/poetry. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55455-396-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
A thoroughly amusing way to introduce kids to bug behavior.
Are bugs good parents?
Are they loving and affectionate? Do they feed their offspring? Playful contrasts between human and insect behavior will captivate young readers as they listen to the read-aloud–friendly text and view the alternating cartoonlike spoofs on human living and detailed bug environments. In one picture, a bug hides its eyes and exclaims, “Where’s Baby?” to two excited baby bugs. The text reads: “Bugs don’t play peekaboo.” After the page turn, the text reads: “But tortoise beetle babies do get to hide.” The illustration displays an un-anthropomorphized tortoise beetle mother realistically sheltering “her young under her speckled shell.” The book uses this format throughout to show true insect behavior in a way that young children can absorb easily. On another page, the text reads: “For dinner bugs don’t make soup.” Some adults may not be charmed by the burying beetles that use their saliva to create a “soupy meal” in craters of mouse meat for their little ones, but kids will thoroughly enjoy these weird facts. The last spread shows an interracial family (white dad and black mom with a biracial child), lots of bug toys, and the message learned through this journey: “Bugs ARE like us” (“aren’t” is crossed out). Further information about the insects is presented in the informative backmatter along with an exhortation to get outside and explore nature.
A thoroughly amusing way to introduce kids to bug behavior. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58089-816-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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