A solid nutritional primer that is sure to get mouths watering for healthy food…and apple crisp.
Ritchie’s group of friends from Look Where We Live! and Follow That Map! (2015, 2009) this time take a trip to Yulee’s aunt’s farm to see where food comes from and collect the ingredients for an apple crisp for the community potluck dinner.
In the van, the kids learn about the food groups and why it’s important to eat a variety of foods from each group. Once they reach the farm, Aunt Sara gives the kids a tour, and this is how Ritchie painlessly introduces readers to grains, a rainbow of vegetables, the protein packed in eggs, the products that come from cow and goat milk, and how to tell when apples are ready to be picked. The kids then refuel with a nutritious snack and drive to the store, along the way learning how foods that aren’t grown locally get to the market. Once they have their ingredients, it’s off to Pedro’s house to cook with his dad. Yulee and Pedro compost the peels. A final spread shows the kids arriving at the harvest dinner with their dessert. The five are already a diverse group, but Ritchie consciously extends it with this scene, rounding out the community with the elderly, a person in a wheelchair, and a man in a turban, among others.
A solid nutritional primer that is sure to get mouths watering for healthy food…and apple crisp. (recipe, glossary) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77138-618-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Instructive on several levels—and good, wet fun! (Informational picture book. 4-7)
Is it a universal truth that kids don’t like baths?
Maybe yes, maybe no. Children may not like the bathing experience at first, but they often don’t want it to end. By home bathtubs, communal baths, lakes, rivers, and even a mud volcano, cajoling adults say, “Yes, yes,” while unwilling children shout, “No, no!” These words, in many languages (in English transliteration) and their phonetic pronunciations (in a smaller font), are woven into the illustrations (and so are not always easily read). Exuberant illustrations, emphasizing aqueous blues and greens, are executed in oils with collage elements and finished in Photoshop. The unclothed young children and more modestly covered adults have different skin and hair colors, but the book starts in an unnamed country (the U.S.?) with a loving, brown-skinned mom summoning her reluctant child to an old-fashioned bathtub. The same adorable boy doesn’t want to leave the tub at the end and splashes his mom, who then cuddles him reassuringly in a towel. In between these familiar domestic scenes, a Japanese family lines up to use the ofuro, a square wooden tub; Turkish siblings go to the hammann, a beautifully decorated bathhouse; an Indian dad and his little boy go to the Ganges to “honor their ancestors”; and an Alaskan Yup’ik family visits a maquii for a traditional sweat bath. Although there is no map, there are lively explanatory notes.
Instructive on several levels—and good, wet fun! (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-58089-544-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In connecting yoga with its roots, this book stands out
A straightforward introduction to yoga in a picture-book format.
In it, Spaniard Raventós tells readers that “many, many years ago in India, some men…decided that the simplest thing they could do was BREATHE” and invites readers to “sit down on the floor for a little while like they did.” Like other nonfiction picture books about yoga for children, this effort showcases child-friendly asanas (poses), such as tree, half-moon, cat, lion, and tortoise. But unlike similar titles, this book traces yoga’s beginnings to India and explains why and how asanas were developed: early practitioners needed to “train their bodies so they could stand still without complaining” and “train their thoughts” so that they could do “nothing more than breathing.” And, although the book’s protagonist is an unnamed blond, white boy, most spreads (by fellow Spaniard Girón) are of older Indian men and women—dhoti-wearing or sari-clad—performing the familiar asanas, a subtle representation of yoga’s ancient Eastern roots. Raventós’ prose is somewhat awkward and stilted, perhaps due to the (uncredited) translation, but Girón’s illustrations are calm and inviting. A reading guide provides further information about yogic breathing, and a pose glossary offers detailed instructions for the various asanas.
In connecting yoga with its roots, this book stands out . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4236-4935-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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