Compelling fare for bloodthirsty young STEM-winders.
A familiar folktale with a microscopic twist.
Tardigrades, also known as “moss piglets” and “water bears,” are renowned for their extreme durability. So it is that when Mother Tardigrade, being “a staunch advocate for fostering early childhood independence,” sends her offspring, Gavin, Colin, and Doug, off to explore the big wide world, they find agreeable new digs in (respectively) an erupting volcano, an Antarctic ice cave, and on the moon. Moments of terror ensue when a Big Hairy Wolf Spider tracks the three down in turn, but the extreme environments quickly send the hapless arachnid packing. Fay kits out her looming spider and rotund microfauna with big pop eyes for extra cuteness but otherwise renders them with reasonable accuracy and closes with boxes of tardigrade facts, plus a glossary of “slightly scientific terms” used in the narrative. Following the lead of Eugene Trivizas’ Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig (1993), illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, the author also gives the tale a happily-ever-after for all, as the scorched, hypothermic, suffocated, but otherwise unharmed spider, “transparent liquid welling up in his lacrimal glands,” tells Mother T that he was only looking to make friends, and she, suffering from empty-nest syndrome, invites him to stay for tea and cake.
Compelling fare for bloodthirsty young STEM-winders. (source list) (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250776099
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Godwin Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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