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OUTSIDE AND INSIDE GIANT SQUID

Name: OUTSIDE AND INSIDE GIANT SQUID
Author: Sandra Markle
ISBN: 0-8027-8872-6

by Sandra Markle & photographed by Sandra Markle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2003

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As long as a city bus, with eyes as large as volleyballs, the giant squid is a thing of nightmares. No one has succeeded in capturing a live giant squid, but scientists have carefully studied dead specimens and extrapolated more from smaller squid relatives. Markle once again weaves her magic, making speculative science real with a brief, but detailed text and stunning photographs. She explains that the giant squid floats in the sea even though it may weigh a ton because its muscles contain ammonia, a chemical less dense that water. She shows a close-up photo of the three hearts, the fist-sized beak, and the tooth-studded strip called the radula inside the squid’s mouth. Markle makes clear there is much still to be discovered by the next generation of oceanographers. For example, little is known about giant squid reproduction. What is not known stimulates the imagination; every page is another wow. Fascinating. (glossary/index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-8027-8872-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Walker

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2003

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT NARWHAL RESCUE
by Sandra Markle

- BOOK REVIEW
CALL THE BEE DOCTOR!
by Sandra Markle

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?
by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Howard McWilliam

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DELPHINE AND THE SILVER NEEDLE

From the Delphine series , Vol. 1

by Alyssa Moon ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2021

A charming series opener.

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A foundling mouse sets out to uncover the mystery of her origins and of the magical needle sized for humans that was left with her.

Delphine’s travels begin with a summons to the palace, where her growing reputation as a brilliant seamstress commands an order for a ball gown for Princess Petits-Oiseaux—and also gives her a chance to discover exciting hints about a vanished order of needle-wielding magic mice known as the Threaded and of an ancient war with the rats. Meanwhile, no sooner does Midnight, cruel king of the rats, learn that the needle they have been seeking for a century has been found than said old war suddenly heats up and turns into a deadly chase. Also meanwhile, only barely noticed by the animal cast but sure to snag readers’ attention, certain events involving another seamstress, a pumpkin coach, a ball, a prince, and a glass slipper are happening above the floorboards in the parallel human world. That isn’t the only sly touch in this bibbidi bobbidi debut, which is rich in clearly delineated character types, features plenty of brisk action, and is also, overall, more than a bit reminiscent in tone and setting to Brian Jacques’ Redwall series (though with more focus on fashion than food). While this volume is mostly setup, heroes and villains alike end up on their marks, and plenty of loose ends remain to stitch up later.

A charming series opener. (Animal fantasy. 10-12)

Pub Date: March 2, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-368-04802-6

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

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I AM THE CAT

by Alice Schertle ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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PLB 0-688-13154-9 All aspects of the personality of a cat, no matter how maligned, are seen through a set of witty poems and pictures full of visual puns. Egyptian hieroglyphs on the endpapers hint at the cat’s timelessness, followed by the collection itself, introduced with a close-up of a cat’s face and one paw swiping through a mousehole at the resident, hilariously backed into a corner. For every lyrical haiku setting forth a single attribute of cats, a longer poem appears to contradict—even demolish—it. After a lovely scene of a cat lapping at the reflection of a moon in a puddle comes a Genesis-like telling of the cat’s fall from grace because it sipped from the moon. A haiku on the one feather found on a cat’s whiskers gives way to a poem on stalking mice, right to the crushing last line, “Mine!” In “Sophie, Who Taunted the Dogs,” the sublime Sophie meets with a very grisly end after teasing neighborhood dogs. If cats are cuddly, queenly, sneaky, devilish, and aloof, they are captured here, attribute by attribute. Children will rush to find cats, rabbits, mice, and T-rexes Buehner shows hiding in the rain puddles of a city street or the cracks of a broken headlight, posing as clouds or doubling as leaves in a field. (Picture book/poetry. 5-10)