Quirky and illuminating.
Everything readers ever wanted to know about ladybugs, told by one who knows better than anyone.
Ladybugs play an important role in our world as eco-friendly pest controllers and plant pollinators—and they bring us good luck, according to lore. This Czech import opens as spring rolls in and a “loveliness” of seven-spot ladybugs wake from their winter slumber and stretch. One of them, Mariella, launches into an account of one year in the life of the species; our peppy guide points out their main body parts (elytra are the outer wings), notes where they like to live (everywhere except the polar regions), and covers the variety of ladybugs in the world, how they help humans’ gardens (by eating aphids), and the ways they defend themselves (by emitting a bad smell). Sekaninová folds in facts through Mariella’s cheery narration, discussing courtship, egg laying, hatching, and young ladybugs’ subsequent pupation and metamorphosis, all of which spans roughly a year. In Dao’s whimsical, heavily anthropomorphic illustrations, ladybugs roast aphids over a fire, push baby carriages, tussle over food, and settle into leaf hammocks for the night; with their dark faces, bright-red lips, and large eyes with prominent whites, some of these depictions inadvertently suggest racial stereotypes common throughout U.S. history. One spread called “Miracle of Nature” lays out the ladybug life cycle, each phase surrounded by a frame featuring joyous and quizzical insect faces, ideal for budding entomologists and garden aficionados.
Quirky and illuminating. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9788000078380
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Albatros Media
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Another playful imagination-stretcher.
Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.
As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.
Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781339049052
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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