Ideal as a picture-book gift for graduating seniors, this also provides a beautiful lesson for its intended child audience.
It’s not the destination but the journey that matters for one sweetly chipper little chipmunk.
“Nature is a fickle thing. One wonders what mood she was in, the day she invented chipmunks.” From the start we are informed that upon reaching their seventh week of life, all chipmunks leave their mothers and set off into the wide world. So it is that Mino’s mama gives him a kiss and he boards a bus, taking with him several seeds and fairly humming with excitement. The bus ride is a long one, and Mino has time to befriend everyone who comes aboard, from the driver to the last passenger. After traveling and talking and sharing together, they reach the end of the line. The final two-page wordless spread simply shows that Mino's seeds, many of which he has given away to his fellow travelers, have sprouted into beautiful sunflowers. Lyrical language conveys how some passengers talk about big and small things: “And when a passenger reaches their stop and leaves, it’s the small things they shared that linger on in everyone’s hearts.” Endearing Mino will suck readers in with his excitement about the world; older readers about to embark on their own journeys, like soon-to-be or recent graduates, will especially relate to him, though so will youngsters. The art is an adorable array of penciled details and soft pastel colors. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Ideal as a picture-book gift for graduating seniors, this also provides a beautiful lesson for its intended child audience. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781838740887
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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