An eloquent, richly illustrated cry for attention to a pressing ecological issue.
A sense of urgency infuses this account of hatchling salmon swimming downstream and encountering a deadly new threat to their survival when they reach the sea.
Writing in rhyming text and enlarging on each verse in matching blocks of prose, Poll (Métis) chronicles salmon’s reproductive cycle as they hatch, go through stages of growth from alevin to smolt, then set off downstream to an estuary. Here they come across natural predators as well as open-net pen fish farms overcrowded with captive fish that fill the surrounding waters with waste, parasitic sea lice, and disease microbes. The consequent decline in wild salmon populations affects both ocean and upstream ecosystems, as the fish are a keystone species whose post-egg-laying deaths benefit over 135 species of flora and fauna. Trainor-Mattis, an Indigenous artist, incorporates Northwest Coastal designs into her depictions of salmon and other wildlife, with solid-black human figures in traditional dress looking on in the backgrounds from riverbanks and boats. Emotion infuses both text and visuals—the anguished faces of salmon trapped in nets are especially moving. The backmatter features no concrete suggestions for remediating the farming problem but does include a note from Lakál’t (a knowledge keeper from the Lil’wat Nation) and salmon-related glossaries in English and three Indigenous languages.
An eloquent, richly illustrated cry for attention to a pressing ecological issue. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781771476461
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Another playful imagination-stretcher.
Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.
As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.
Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781339049052
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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