by Roxie Munro ; illustrated by Roxie Munro ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2020
A fine way for budding marine biologists to get their feet wet while staying dry.
A Caribbean coral reef is home to a remarkable variety of sea creatures you might meet were you to swim there.
Munro, who most recently introduced her young readers to Rodent Rascals (2018), now invites them to dive into a coral reef, like those she’s visited, to meet some of its inhabitants, shown at their actual sizes. The conceit of this catalog is clever. A labeled diagram in the backmatter reveals that this is a mural, cut up into individual spreads. One, a double gatefold, accommodates a major portion of the reef shark. Each spread includes a label or labels and paragraphs of interesting information about the major creatures shown. This may include something distinctive about its habits (spotted cleaner shrimp and yellow nose gobies eat parasites off fish without being eaten in return), its body parts (rainbow parrot fish have fused teeth that make a kind of beak to scrape algae from coral), or the way it communicates (squids and octopuses change color) or defends itself (Atlantic blue tangs and southern stingrays have barbs). Italicized words like “echinoderm” and “venomous” are defined in a glossary. These clear, well-defined paintings reveal recognizable creatures (or parts, when they are too big to fit on the spread) among colorful coral and anemones.
A fine way for budding marine biologists to get their feet wet while staying dry. (further information, resources, glossary, index, map) (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4335-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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by Roxie Munro ; illustrated by Roxie Munro
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by Roxie Munro ; illustrated by Roxie Munro
BOOK REVIEW
by Roxie Munro ; illustrated by Roxie Munro
by Joanna Rzezak ; illustrated by Joanna Rzezak ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 18, 2021
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
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by Joanna Rzezak ; illustrated by Joanna Rzezak
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by Joanna Rzezak ; illustrated by Joanna Rzezak
by Mike Lowery ; illustrated by Mike Lowery ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 7, 2021
A quick flight but a blast from first to last.
A charged-up roundup of astro-facts.
Having previously explored everything awesome about both dinosaurs (2019) and sharks (2020), Lowery now heads out along a well-traveled route, taking readers from the Big Bang through a planet-by-planet tour of the solar system and then through a selection of space-exploration highlights. The survey isn’t unique, but Lowery does pour on the gosh-wow by filling each hand-lettered, poster-style spread with emphatic colors and graphics. He also goes for the awesome in his selection of facts—so that readers get nothing about Newton’s laws of motion, for instance, but will come away knowing that just 65 years separate the Wright brothers’ flight and the first moon landing. They’ll also learn that space is silent but smells like burned steak (according to astronaut Chris Hadfield), that thanks to microgravity no one snores on the International Space Station, and that Buzz Aldrin was the first man on the moon…to use the bathroom. And, along with a set of forgettable space jokes (OK, one: “Why did the carnivore eat the shooting star?” “Because it was meteor”), the backmatter features drawing instructions for budding space artists and a short but choice reading list. Nods to Katherine Johnson and NASA’s other African American “computers” as well as astronomer Vera Rubin give women a solid presence in the otherwise male and largely White cast of humans. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A quick flight but a blast from first to last. (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-35974-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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by Laura Murray ; illustrated by Mike Lowery
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by Laura Murray ; illustrated by Mike Lowery
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by Mike Lowery ; illustrated by Mike Lowery
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