This volume may even lure children (and adults) back to the farm.
Engaging color photos depict smiling farmers and fishermen (and fisherwoman) and gleeful children eating their products.
The colors are intense, and the prolific photographer captures her subjects from all over the U.S. with big smiles, often in midbite. Adults are of different races and genders, but many are white males. The children are very diverse. The people who “grow, raise and catch” are grouped by product: vegetables, berries, citrus, and fruit; wheat, rice, potato, and corn; dairy, beef, chicken, and pig; and fish, shellfish, and lobster. The last pages mention family farms and urban gardens. Starting with black-and-white photos from the early 20th century, the book makes an Oz-like switch to full color. The text mentions the recent locavore trend of farmers markets and farm stands. Each double-page spread is laid out as a grid with several photos and a block or two of text (white letters on a dark-colored background). Simple, declarative sentences describe foods and people. Interesting facts are mentioned: “Corn always has an even number of rows.” Some may wish there could have been a distinction made among different lettuce varieties in the assertion that “even though it’s mostly made up of water, it’s very nutritious.” But that’s a small quibble. This will prove to be an attractive, useful book for food and nutrition units in the lower grades.
This volume may even lure children (and adults) back to the farm. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3643-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity.
Buzz and his buzzy buddy open a spinoff series of nonfiction early readers with an aquarium visit.
Buzz: “Like other fish, sharks breathe through gills.” Fly Guy: “GILLZZ.” Thus do the two pop-eyed cartoon tour guides squire readers past a plethora of cramped but carefully labeled color photos depicting dozens of kinds of sharks in watery settings, along with close-ups of skin, teeth and other anatomical features. In the bite-sized blocks of narrative text, challenging vocabulary words like “carnivores” and “luminescence” come with pronunciation guides and lucid in-context definitions. Despite all the flashes of dentifrice and references to prey and smelling blood in the water, there is no actual gore or chowing down on display. Sharks are “so cool!” proclaims Buzz at last, striding out of the gift shop. “I can’t wait for our next field trip!” (That will be Fly Guy Presents: Space, scheduled for September 2013.)
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity. (Informational easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-50771-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
