Considering how hurricanes are named, it's not surprising that someone has thought of making them into an alphabet book; this portrait of a city where ``We get them big,/We get them small—/Sooner or later we get them all...'' is a mixture of tall tale (especially in the cheery abandon with which its people are pictured enduring the wind's pranks) and rueful plausibility. On the whole, though, whether it's ``Chester,'' whose rains enable dogs to surf in a grassy yard where a sunbather's about to be doused by an unexpected wave, or ``Tommy,'' who hoists an outfielder aloft to catch what should have been a homer, the comic spirit tends to prevail. The situations aren't all equally novel or clever, but kids will have fun checking out the details in the lively, windswept illustrations. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 30, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-021572-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1993
``Trees are nice [and] also useful,'' begins the noted science writer, summing up the concepts introduced here. Pointing out the many ordinary objects made from wood or, less obviously, tree products (rubber, turpentine, fruit, paper), she goes on to trees' role in animal habitats and the larger environment, including photosynthesis as an important part of a cycle on which we all depend. The simple yet precise text ends with ways to ``Be a Friend to Trees''. Unfortunately, Keller's illustrations, while bright and attractive, are less precise; especially where tree species are labeled, it's a shame to misrepresent them visually. Misshapen birch trunks or vaguely depicted leaves are fine in the picture book stories at which Keller excels, but they're inappropriate in a science book, no matter how young the audience. Still, the lucid text will make this useful; and creative teachers could make a project of comparing real trees with the art. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-021528-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
The can’t-miss subject of this Step into Reading series entry—a unicorn with a magic horn who also longs for wings—trumps its text, which is dry even by easy-reader standards. A boy unicorn, whose horn has healing powers, reveals his wish to a butterfly in a castle garden, a bluebird in the forest and a snowy white swan in a pond. Falling asleep at the edge of the sea, the unicorn is visited by a winged white mare. He heals her broken wing and she flies away. After sadly invoking his wish once more, he sees his reflection: “He had big white wings!” He flies off after the mare, because he “wanted to say, ‘Thank you.’ ” Perfectly suiting this confection, Silin-Palmer’s pictures teem with the mass market–fueled iconography of what little girls are (ostensibly) made of: rainbows, flowers, twinkly stars and, of course, manes down to there. (Easy reader. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83117-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
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