The art is a bigger draw than the text, but both reward close looks.
The focus is on food chains in this follow-up to the dazzling Animal Camouflage (2017).
Once again Dennis’ precise, realistic cut-paper illustrations command attention. Labeled silhouettes of individual plants and animals are color coded to show their predator-prey relationships within seven marine or terrestrial habitats; these are followed by intricate, full-page monochrome scenes in which the flora and fauna are artfully incorporated, to be picked out by the sharp of eye. The accompanying observations and infographics offer a light wash of general observations, questions (“Which creature is the apex predator?”), and repetitive instructions to seek producers and consumers in each large picture. Hutchinson properly develops the notion of “web” along with “chain” from the outset. Unfortunately, he places the selected wildlife into “trophic levels” without clearly defining the term, inconsistently identifies some figures by name but others only by function (“insect-eating bird” for example), and includes “decomposers” only in the “Woodland” food chain. But there’s room for delight: For an array of woodland creatures that includes an earthworm, the author asks which can climb trees…and even confirmed young naturalists may be astonished at the (correct) answer at the end: “All of them!”
The art is a bigger draw than the text, but both reward close looks. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61689-849-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
A winning heads up for younger readers just becoming aware of the wider natural world.
An appeal to share concern for 12 familiar but threatened, endangered, or critically endangered animal species.
The subjects of Marino’s intimate, close-up portraits—fairly naturalistically rendered, though most are also smiling, glancing up at viewers through human eyes, and posed at rest with a cute youngling on lap or flank—steal the show. Still, Clinton’s accompanying tally of facts about each one’s habitat and daily routines, to which the title serves as an ongoing refrain, adds refreshingly unsentimental notes: “A single giraffe kick can kill a lion!”; “[S]hivers of whale sharks can sense a drop of blood if it’s in the water nearby, though they eat mainly plankton.” Along with tucking in collective nouns for each animal (some not likely to be found in major, or any, dictionaries: an “embarrassment” of giant pandas?), the author systematically cites geographical range, endangered status, and assumed reasons for that status, such as pollution, poaching, or environmental change. She also explains the specific meaning of “endangered” and some of its causes before closing with a set of doable activities (all uncontroversial aside from the suggestion to support and visit zoos) and a list of international animal days to celebrate.
A winning heads up for younger readers just becoming aware of the wider natural world. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51432-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Just the ticket for an armchair outing to the red planet.
Good news! Planet Marvelous is looking forward to visitors from Planet Awesome.
With the same exuberance that propelled readers deep into her Ocean! Waves for All (2020), illustrated by David Litchfield, and its three predecessors in the Our Universe series, McAnulty looks to the next planet out for a fresh set of enticing natural wonders. Billing itself a “party planet” (“I want to be the FIRST planet with human guests”), the russet raconteur trumpets its unique attractions. These range from moons Deimos and Phobos (“I know Earth is totally jealous”) to Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, which is “four times as deep as the Grand Canyon! And not nearly as crowded.” Sure, unlike Spirit, Opportunity, and other rovers, human visitors will have to pack their own water and oxygen in addition to traveling millions of miles…but given a few technological advances, soon enough it’ll be time to “get this party started!” Prospective tourists diverse of age and race are dancing already on Earth in a final scene in anticipation of a trip to our “reMARkable” neighbor. Quiz questions and a timeline cap an enticement that echoes Susanna Leonard Hill’s Mars’ First Friends: Come on Over, Rovers! (2020), illustrated by Elisa Paganelli, in its fizzy mix of fact and fancy. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Just the ticket for an armchair outing to the red planet. (sources) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-25688-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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