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CORAL REEFS

Name: CORAL REEFS
Author: Sylvia A. Earle
ISBN: 0-7922-6953-5

by Sylvia A. Earle & illustrated by Bonnie Matthews ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2003

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Here renowned marine biologist Earle essentially recasts her Hello, Fish (1999) as a more conventional introduction to reef residents and visitors. Matthews sets the scene with brightly colored, cartoon-flat reefscapes that feature varieties of corals, fish, shellfish, and other creatures, all being observed by a snorkeling child and a green-yellow-fuchsia parrotfish. The author notes efforts to save endangered reefs without mentioning specific cases, and closes with an invitation to visit these “cities that never sleep,” but offers no sources, paper or electronic, for further information. Though Matthews captures the reef’s shimmery beauty, her pictures will not convey to viewers either the fine details or the range of colors and surface textures, that photographs, such as the ones that grace Hello, Fish or Mary M. Cerullo’s Coral Reef (1996, illustrated by Jeffrey Rotman), do. A worthy addition to the large school of like titles, but Earle’s just treading water. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)

Pub Date: March 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-7922-6953-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: National Geographic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

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DIARY OF A SPIDER

by Doreen Cronin & illustrated by Harry Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2005

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The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-06-000153-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

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LAWRENCE & SOPHIA
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Brian Cronin

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MAMA IN THE MOON
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Brian Cronin

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LAWRENCE & SOPHIA
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Brian Cronin

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HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE STARRY NIGHT

From the Henry and Mudge series

by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Sucie Stevenson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

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Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)