A scientifically sound and artfully executed introduction to avian biology imbued with both wonder and accuracy.
This step-by-step overview of hatching addresses a gosling embryo directly.
Ackerman’s text cleverly oscillates between two registers: playful second-person commands to the unhatched bird (“Aim your egg tooth. Jab. Inhale”) and factual sidebars explaining embryonic development. This dual-track approach accommodates varied attention spans and developmental stages; younger listeners can follow the energetic main narrative with its satisfying verbs (“UNZIP!” “PIP!” “KAPOW!”), while older children can absorb the scientific details in the teal-bordered text boxes. The vocabulary delights, with phrases such as “pipping muscle,” “ta-tap,” and “don’t dawdle.” Bernstein’s digital illustrations make wonderful use of negative space, isolating the cream-colored egg and golden gosling against clean white backgrounds that focus attention on minute anatomical details and incremental progress. Bernstein’s rendering of textures proves particularly effective—the gosling’s down shifts convincingly from slick, matted wetness to airy fluffiness. The baby’s parent demonstrates subtle shifts in posture and expression (vigilant neck stretching during pipping, tender head-tucking with hatchlings) that convey attentiveness without anthropomorphizing. Cross-section views inside the darkened shell rely on dramatic chiaroscuro to illuminate the cramped embryo’s struggle, creating visual tension that culminates in a lovely payoff as the gosling emerges at last.
A scientifically sound and artfully executed introduction to avian biology imbued with both wonder and accuracy. (glossary, author’s note, selected sources) (Informational picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780593811061
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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