A good guessing game but not a great resource to take into the field.
When Tekiela, who previously challenged readers to guess Whose Baby Butt? (2018) can’t find any animal butts, he must make do with snapping pics of their tracks.
The first of two double-page spreads gives readers a close-up photo of an animal track in sand, snow, or mud on the recto and a large-print clue, a tiny silhouette of the animal, and a small-print hint on the verso, the combination of which makes it almost impossible for readers not to be successful. (“This animal’s front paws look like a person’s hand, with five fingers. / It sometimes even dunks its food in water! / Whose track is that? / HINT: This animal has black rings around its tail.”) The following spread reveals a full-color picture of the animal (a raccoon, in this case) and some information about it. The photos of the tracks are a mixed bag. Some are difficult to make out, and the majority show only a single print, though the otter’s row of tracks does include a slide. Robin, bullfrog, earthworm, deer, bobcat, dog, beaver, Canada goose, and bear are the other animals. A backmatter spread of the full tracks of each animal provides readers with very clear illustrations for comparison, but there is no guidance on where to look for or how to cast tracks. Each is labeled with the relative size of the print, and a ruler (in inches only) runs along the bottom.
A good guessing game but not a great resource to take into the field. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-59193-958-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Adventure Publications
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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