A thoughtful contemplation on how our actions affect life on our planet.
In this story translated from German and set in the Amazon jungle, a boy and his grandfather go on an all-day fishing outing.
A young boy looks forward to going fishing with his grandfather and to bringing home a big fish that he hopes will put an end to his being laughed at by his friends. Exuberant illustrations that overflow their pages set the stage for the story. Grandad and child—who appear to be Indigenous—navigate their canoe through lush mangroves and past the magnificent Victoria amazonica lily pads as enormous fish swim beneath them. As they set their bait and wait, then wait some more, then move on to another spot and cast their net, Grandad tells the boy stories of the different fish that live under the water lilies. When they eventually catch a big arowana, the boy is dismayed when his grandfather wants to release it. The male arowana carry their young in their mouths, so catching the adult fish implies killing its young as well. Grandad tells the boy “You must decide what is more important—taking the fish to show your friends, or letting this dad and his children live peacefully in the great river.” For another glimpse at life in the Amazon rainforest, read also Along the Tapajós by Fernando Vilela and translated by Daniel Hahn (2019).
A thoughtful contemplation on how our actions affect life on our planet. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-988-8342-01-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
A solid, small step for diversifying STEM stories.
What does Annie want to be?
As career day approaches, Annie wants to keep her job choice secret until her family sees her presentation at school. Readers will figure it out, however, through the title and clues Tadgell incorporates into the illustrations. Family members make guesses about her ambitions that are tied to their own passions, although her brother watches as she completes her costume in a bedroom with a Mae Jemison poster, starry décor, and a telescope. There’s a celebratory mood at the culminating presentation, where Annie says she wants to “soar high through the air” like her basketball-playing mother, “explore faraway places” like her hiker dad, and “be brave and bold” like her baker grandmother (this feels forced, but oven mitts are part of her astronaut costume) so “the whole world will hear my exciting stories” like her reporter grandfather. Annie jumps off a chair to “BLAST OFF” in a small illustration superimposed on a larger picture depicting her floating in space with a reddish ground below. It’s unclear if Annie imagines this scene or if it’s her future-self exploring Mars, but either scenario fits the aspirational story. Backmatter provides further reading suggestions and information about the moon and four women astronauts, one of whom is Jemison. Annie and her family are all black.
A solid, small step for diversifying STEM stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-88448-523-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
This pleasant look at gardening in a city setting reflects a growing trend.
Several inner-city children work together to plant seeds and cultivate their own gardens, transforming their little “anywhere farms” into a lush, green community garden covering a vacant city lot.
A pink-cheeked little girl in overalls receives a single seed from a helpful tan-skinned neighbor on the title page, and she then inspires a flurry of gardening in her neighborhood with children and adults of different ethnicities joining in, including a white boy who uses a wheelchair. The bouncy, rhyming text conveys the basic requirements of growing plants from seeds as well as suggesting a wide variety of unusual containers for growing plants. Several leading questions about the plant growth cycle are interspersed within the story, set in large type on full pages that show a seed gradually sprouting and growing into a huge sunflower on the final, wordless page. The joyful text makes growing flowers and vegetables seem easy, showing plants spilling out of alternative containers as well as more traditional raised beds and the concluding, large garden plot. The text focuses on the titular concept of an “anywhere farm,” without differentiating between farms and gardens, but this conceit is part of the amusing, rollicking tone. Detailed, soft-focus illustrations in mixed media use an autumnal palette of muted green, peach, and tan that don’t quite match the buoyant flavor of the cheerful text.
This pleasant look at gardening in a city setting reflects a growing trend. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7499-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
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