With wonderfully realistic colored-pencil images and a kid-friendly text, this highly entertaining tale explores the notion...
A debut picture book introduces concepts of Aristotelian logic that can help children learn how to better define the inhabitants and aspects of their world.
Beginning with the title words and a detailed illustration of a mother duck with her ducklings, this tale examines two groups: ducks and birds. On the next page, accompanied by the image of a honking goose so lifelike the reader can almost hear it, author and illustrator Zrinski writes: “All geese are birds, / but, no geese are ducks.” She continues that swans are also birds but not ducks, using this example to clarify the concept before moving on to something more complex: all of those birds can fly, but does that mean all birds have that ability? Savvy young readers will already know the answer and should be pleased that they’re correct when they see the cheerful-looking, earthbound ostriches on the next page. Zrinski then points out that all birds have feathers, including penguins (who also cannot fly), and asks readers to compare penguins and puffins, who look similar—they’re black and white—but are quite distinct. After establishing that some birds can fly and others can’t in her amusing story, Zrinski looks at whether they all can swim, given that so many of the creatures mentioned are swimmers. But not ostriches! (“No! Ostriches do not swim / Some ostriches sit in puddles / Sitting in puddles is not swimming.”) Yet all birds lay eggs. By offering all of these concrete details and asking children to think about how the birds relate to one another using an approachable, kid-friendly vocabulary, the text will likely have independent and lap readers and parent-child teams eagerly answering Zrinski’s questions and making their guesses and comparisons about these feathered friends. Parents may see how such assessments teach children to consider the big picture, comparing not just birds, but other animals or, beyond that, shapes, genres of fiction, or social groups. The application is far-ranging, but children may learn the building blocks from sheer enjoyment rather than considering these useful points formal lessons.
With wonderfully realistic colored-pencil images and a kid-friendly text, this highly entertaining tale explores the notion of groups, showing the attributes of different types of birds.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5049-6010-6
Page Count: 44
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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