A clearly written, brief—but surprisingly complete— discussion of the brain and its parts. While the format resembles the ``Let's-Read-and-Find-Out'' series, the information and concepts here are for an older audience and require careful reading; compressing the functioning of the brain into eight sentences, for example, is a remarkable feat. Though there is no glossary or index, specialized words (``glial,'' ``synapse'') are defined in the text. Colorful, amusing illustrations show a multiracial group of children joining the slightly loony Dr. I.Q. in his lab, participating in experiments, and commenting on the text (``He should sing tenor''; ``Yeah, ten or eleven miles away!''). The drawings also add sly humor: piles of books with titles like ``Moby Brain,'' or ``Brains I Have Known'' by S. Freud. An appealing, and unusual, sort of introduction. (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: March 12, 1993
ISBN: 1-878093-27-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1993
The change of seasons from fall to winter makes a captivating bedtime story as Mother Nature tries to tuck in her wild child, Autumn. This child will do anything to stay up; when she complains that she needs a song, her mother provides one that includes acorns splattering, leaves crinkling, and birds twittering. Next the child needs a treat, and after she has munched on a bounty of cranberries, nuts, and pumpkins, she has to change into her pajamas. These nightclothes are the flame colors of autumn leaves with orange slippers to match. Before she can really fall asleep, the child demands a goodnight kiss. This “frosty kiss” is necessarily cold and frozen, foreshadowing the next season, but to readers, the effect of such a somber kiss from mother to child is chilling, or at least less than comforting. Finally the child yawns and curls up to sleep, but the mother will not be resting, for another child, Winter, arrives and “can’t sleep.” Couch’s absorbing illustrations match the allegorical aspect of the poetic text, and both transport readers with images of unusual clarity and depth. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81552-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The theme of these titles is engagingly combined with a classic animal-book for the very young. In the first book, a toddler gives the first reason for loving her bearded white dad: "he plays with me." Other reasons are demonstrated by animals and their young: "He brings me dinner" is illustrated with a horned puffin and its chick; a giraffe helps its calf "reach things," etc., until the conclusion, when "I love my daddy and my daddy loves me" is illustrated with a different child and her dad. Beginning with a black mommy reading to her son, and depicting different animals, the second book follows the same pattern. Wolff's beautifully designed paintings are precisely rendered and memorably affectionate (especially a kangaroo tucking her joey into her pouch and a sea otter rocking her pup to sleep on a wave). Fortunately, these sturdy pages will survive the many readings they're sure to receive. The animals are unobtrusively captioned.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-525-44624-9
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
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