This field trip to remember will appeal to eager chapter-book readers, fans of talking-animal stories, and teachers looking...
Schoolyard squirrel Twitch has scientific questions but no answers, so he joins a class trip to the Galileo Museum and Science Center.
Stowing away on the school bus is just the first of Twitch’s adventures on this field trip, all breathlessly recounted in a first-person, present-tense narration that exposes his squirrel-centered understanding of the world. Chapter-book readers will both recognize his quirks, including his preoccupation with food, and enjoy a sense of superiority in their wider understanding. For this third title in a series that began with 8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel ÷1 Dog = Chaos (2011), the author-illustrator pair have perfected their formula for entertainment—a limited perspective, slapstick humor, and nonstop action. Twitch is protected inside the museum by a white boy who uses a wheelchair, often shown among his racially diverse classmates in Björkman’s amusing sketches. Other images show Twitch atop an astonished girl’s head, scaring her more than the animatronic T. Rex behind her; Twitch wreaking havoc in the museum’s gift shop; driving a model Mars rover; and flying over a Bernoulli air pressure table. Framed by conversations with science lab geckos Galileo and Newton (among the narrators in the first book), these Twitch episodes stand alone but will certainly lead readers and listeners to look for more.
This field trip to remember will appeal to eager chapter-book readers, fans of talking-animal stories, and teachers looking for an engaging read-aloud. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4167-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
A feel-good tale of a clever and determined stallion set against a well-developed landscape.
In mid-19th-century Nevada, a colt named Sky grows up to lead his band of wild horses.
Parry’s moving story follows the pattern of her recent animal tales, A Wolf Called Wander (2019) and A Whale of the Wild (2020), chronicling a wild animal’s life in the first person, imagining its point of view, and detailing and appreciating the natural world it inhabits. As Sky grows from wobbly newborn to leader of his family, he faces more than the usual challenges for colts who must fight their stallions or leave their herds when they are grown up. Fagan’s appealing black-and-white illustrations help readers envision this survival story. Sky’s adventures include forced service with the Pony Express; being befriended by an enslaved Paiute boy; escaping to find his now-captured band; and helping them escape the silver miners who’d destroyed their world. Animal lovers will applaud his ingenuity and stubbornness. Although Sky’s band has suffered serious injuries (his mother is blind), he and Storm, a mare who was his childhood companion, lead them toward safety in a new wilderness. The writer’s admiration for these wild horses and her concerns about human destruction of their environment come through even more clearly in a series of concluding expository essays discussing the wild horses, the Indigenous Americans, the natural history of the Great Basin, silver mining, and the Pony Express.
A feel-good tale of a clever and determined stallion set against a well-developed landscape. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9780062995957
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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