In alternating passages, a young girl tells about two women she knew in her past, one an elderly African-American, the other a younger Japanese. Both of them are named Mrs. Gibson, and with each turn of the page, the suspense builds: Exactly who are these women? Even if older readers guess, younger readers will have the satisfaction of discovering that the narrator has been describing her Japanese mother and her African-American grandmother, Nanny, pointing out the differences in their cultures, yet showing the commonality of their love toward the girl. With a reassuring repetitive structure, this gentle book is both a memoir about Igus's real relatives and an understated tribute to the ability of people from widely different cultures to live together. Wells's colorful pictures have a matching warmth of spirit, along with an awkwardness of figure and perspective that gives them the look of folk art. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-89239-135-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Children's Book Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
The creators of Voices of the Wild (1993) highlight California's Tule elk (once nearly extinct) in this dramatic but sketchy vignette. Though London conveys some general information about the animal's growth and seasonal behavior, his rudimentary plot—an elk evades a mountain lion twice, once as a calf, again years later after fighting its way to master of the herd—leaps across years and ends abruptly. The close-up views of antlers and animal faces in the paintings catch the eye, but backgrounds are nearly nonexistent and much of the action described in the text— the cougar taking down an old cow, an old bull elk knocking a younger challenger off balance—occurs offstage. Books with more precise, specific observations, like Susan Bonners's Hunter in the Snow (1994), deliver clearer insight into the natural world's checks and balances. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-517-59917-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Handsome illustrations and a colorful cover are not enough to make this title in the Young Discoveries Library a useful purchase. Odd—and not-so-odd—creatures are presented in spreads with large full-color glossy drawings, with one main paragraph each and several descriptive captions. The text is banal and adds little to understanding: ``Black rhinos puff like steam engines when they charge at their enemies,'' and ``Pacific hagfish can tie themselves into knots to wriggle out of an enemy's grasp.'' Unrelated animals are grouped together under headings such as ``Armed for Life'' (armadillos and turtles) and ``In the Air'' (the focus is on bats, but a squirrel glider is pictured because it ``does not have wings like a bat''). A howler monkey is paired with a troop of ring-tailed lemurs. The text for ``Tusks and Horns'' indicates that a rhinoceros has a horn made of keratin (which will grow back if cut off), a walrus has unusual teeth called tusks, two male narwhals may cross their tusks like swords, and a unicorn is an imaginary horse with a horn on its head. Intended for young children, this collection is more confusing than enlightening. (Nonfiction. 5-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-7835-4840-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1996
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