Useful, basic information delivered in an upbeat, colorful package.
Loosely organized in four sections, this compendium features poetic narration, often by the creepy-crawlies themselves, along with facts and suggestions for observing and fostering habitats.
The first three sections introduce specific critters, from millipedes and monarch butterflies to bombardier beetles and bumblebees, some 25 species in all. (Mole uses the unscientific, catch-all term bug without explanation, though in the final section he makes distinctions between insects and other species, such as gastropods and arachnids.) The author occasionally highlights specific habitats such as ponds and includes information, especially in the concluding section, on the important roles these creatures play in regulating our planet’s web of life, from decomposing rotting matter to feeding on garden pests. From a zoological class containing millions of species, Mole plucks plenty of wow-factor snippets to entertain young children. A cockroach’s strong exoskeleton can withstand 900 times its own weight—the equivalent of a 7-year-old being able to hoist two blue whales! New Zealand glow-worms lure their unsuspecting prey with luminescent snot. Leafcutter ants don’t eat their harvest; they feed it to a tasty fungus, which the ants feed on in turn. Stylistically, Mole’s unconcerned with poetic scansion, instead favoring occasional rhyme and apt metaphor. In “Grasshoppers,” the “field fizzes with chirps and clicks.” Ming’s pictures strike a nice balance between veracity and bright, stylized appeal.
Useful, basic information delivered in an upbeat, colorful package. (Informational picture book/poetry. 3-8)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781536238877
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 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.
