With its wide range of jobs and commendable gender balance, this will have a place in classrooms despite the rather odd...
The unnamed and unseen narrator in this German import introduces readers to the jobs of 30 family members and friends.
Three to six sentences on the bottom sixth of each page introduce each person and summarize what their job entails. The careers range widely, from a mechanical engineer, astronaut, and architect (all women!) to a gardener, brewer, and tattoo artist. But the author goes overboard with adjectives: Auntie Tokiko is a farmer. “She gets up very early…to feed her charming cows, clucking chickens, gregarious goats, and gigantic pigs.” And some descriptions are unclear: “When a person might have done something wrong, [lawyer uncle Ben] looks at every little detail and helps them (and the judge) decide what to do.” Ryski’s illustrations have a stylized, posterlike aesthetic. The retro palette is limited to black, white, pink, brown, mustard yellow, orange, green, and a dusky blue. Faces are reminiscent of Lego minifigure faces: expressions and even facial features are mostly the same throughout, whether male or female, with hairstyles and facial hair sometimes differentiating people. The narrator’s sister and grandmother are on facing pages, and aside from one having wavy hair and one having straight, they might be twins; there is no visible age difference, and their faces are identical. Skin tones are either brown or pink.
With its wide range of jobs and commendable gender balance, this will have a place in classrooms despite the rather odd language. (Informational picture book. 3-9)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-3-89955-799-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Gestalten
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.
The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.
Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-55-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun and engaging introduction to Mexico for the younger set.
Young armchair travelers are invited to join a treasure hunt around Mexico while learning a few Spanish words and geographical facts along the way.
The first double-page spread presents a colorful map of Mexico with some of the objects readers will find over the course of their journey as well as a few quick facts about Mexico. A series of colorful and kid-friendly double-page spreads depict landmarks, customs, and foods to be found in different locales, always following the same format: A scene is depicted, basic information is presented in rhyming text, an object must be found, and a “DID YOU KNOW” fun fact appears. To aid children in their search, the object to be located usually is depicted with an aura or stars around it. Words in Spanish are printed in boldface and then presented phonetically. In Mexico City, for example, amid modern skyscrapers, children are invited to locate the statue of El Angel, before reading the “DID YOU KNOW?” fact: The statue is “covered with 24K gold!” There is a commercial angle to the outing, as children are encouraged at the end of the book to visit the website where they can get stickers for each object found in addition to other, related material for sale. The compositions are busy for younger board-book readers, but older toddlers and preschoolers should enjoy it.
A fun and engaging introduction to Mexico for the younger set. (Board book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-945635-22-9
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Encantos
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
