by Tanya Lloyd Kyi ; illustrated by Colleen Larmour ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 3, 2022
Exemplifying urban diversity and ecological harmony, this city will garner return visits from green-keen readers.
This panoramic, morning-to-bedtime city tour presents an urban environment sustainably tooled to help all its inhabitants thrive.
An omniscient narrator introduces readers to the city’s modes of transportation, energy resources, and commercial neighborhood as well as its many places to garden and play. Larmour’s charming, digitally finished watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations present mainly bird’s-eye (and occasional worm’s-eye) views, but she also shows readers a rain garden, the veggie-rich kitchen of a multiracial family, and a stream teeming with wildlife. Pictures brim with examples of a community focused on renewable energy, from a charging station to a clothesline; a green roof to solar panels and wind turbines. Families might well envy the thriving “green classroom,” the playground with tree-spanning bridges, and community garden. The kid-friendly text for each double-page spread ends with a question, inviting enhanced interaction with the pictures. Questions range from the open-ended (“What games will you play?”) to the specific (“Can you spot a special visitor sipping from the zinnias?”). A final spread suggests “More Ways To Be Green,” such as a compost bin, a rain barrel, and a window box herb garden. People depicted vary in terms of skin tone. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Exemplifying urban diversity and ecological harmony, this city will garner return visits from green-keen readers. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0438-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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by Edward Miller ; illustrated by Edward Miller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 4, 2022
Smoother rides are out there.
Mommy and Bonnie—two anthropomorphic rodents—go for a joyride and notice a variety of conveyances around their busy town.
The pair encounter 22 types of vocational vehicles as they pass various sites, including a fire engine leaving a firehouse, a school bus approaching a school, and a tractor trailer delivering goods to a supermarket. Narrated in rhyming quatrains, the book describes the jobs that each wheeled machine does. The text uses simple vocabulary and sentences, with sight words aplenty. Some of the rhymes don't scan as well as others, and the description of the mail truck’s role ("A mail truck brings / letters and cards / to mailboxes / in people's yards) ignores millions of readers living in yardless dwellings. The colorful digitally illustrated spreads are crowded with animal characters of every type hustling and bustling about. Although the art is busy, observant viewers may find humor in details such as a fragile item falling out of a moving truck, a line of ducks holding up traffic, and a squirrel’s spilled ice cream. For younger children enthralled by vehicles, Sally Sutton’s Roadwork (2011) and Elizabeth Verdick’s Small Walt series provide superior text and art and kinder humor. Children who have little interest in cars, trucks, and construction equipment may find this offering a yawner. Despite being advertised as a beginner book, neither text nor art recommend this as an engaging choice for children starting to read independently. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Smoother rides are out there. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-37725-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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by Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 16, 2018
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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