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
An artistic seasonal book, best appreciated by flower lovers.
The third in a seasonal series by Gerber and Evans (Winter Trees, 2008, etc.), this picture book presents 10 different spring-blooming trees.
Two young girls hold hands and skip out into a new spring day. “Spring is bursting out all over. / The sun is up. It’s warm. Let’s go! // Trees, so bare and plain in winter, / are dressed up for their yearly show.” Gerber’s gentle and informative text moves gracefully through the pages, providing descriptions of flowering trees. The dogwood and crab-apple flowers are easily recognized. Less familiar are the white oak and magnolia tree blossoms. Four of the examples show the difference between the male and female flowers (white oak, white pine, balsam fir and beech). Children unaware of the distinction might become distracted from the rhythm of the book and ask questions. Unfortunately, there are few answers in the poetic text. The ending pages show all the blossoms on one page, followed by a description of the transformation of trees in the spring, which includes a paragraph on male and female flowers. Evan’s block-print-and–watercolor artwork provides clean and colorful images of the blossoms, although the medium seems to work better with the snow scenes and evergreens of the duo's Winter Trees.
An artistic seasonal book, best appreciated by flower lovers. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58089-412-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This one may be too stuck on the arc of the original tale to come alive in its own right. (Picture book. 5-7)
An extremely odd variant on "The Three Little Pigs."
It's time for Bork (two eyes, the sister), Gork (the one-eyed brother) and Nklxwcyz (three eyes, like their mom) to go out into the universe to find their own planets. Mom tells them to stick together and watch out for the Big Bad Robot. Bork chooses the red planet, and Gork is enchanted by the golden rings of another, but Nklxwcyz chooses Neptune and builds his house of space stuff and space junk. When the Big Bad Robot smashes Bork’s and Gork’s homes, they flee to Nklxwcyz, whose house is so strong that the Robot gets stuck in the telescope/chimney and explodes. The three children call mom, as exhorted, and she comes to tuck all three into bed. The green-skinned, red-haired or bald little aliens careen around the starry black universe with jetpacks and clear, round headgear, and there is some faint echo of charm in “ ‘Little alien! Little alien!’ it broinked. ‘COME OUT OF HIDING!’ / ‘Not by the orbit of this ring I’m riding!’ ” (The classic dialogue varies slightly from sibling to sibling.) It fails the logic test, though: The Big Bad Robot is fearsome, but there really doesn't seem to be a good reason for him to go after these kids.
This one may be too stuck on the arc of the original tale to come alive in its own right. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-86689-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
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