Drummond rolls along with another successful story of environmental change.
Pedal-power protests in the 1970s turned Amsterdam into “the capital city of cycling.”
Spurred on by activist mom Maartje Rutten and friends, a campaign to take back Amsterdam’s streets that began with festive, peaceful protests turned more serious when a bike-riding child was killed. With auto traffic banned on Sundays because of a fuel shortage, a dramatic mass ride through a cars-only tunnel seemed to turn the tide. New regulations including special bike lanes, traffic-calming constructions, and new right-of-way laws changed things in Amsterdam and all over the world. The author surrounds this simply told story with endpapers showing bicycle efficiency, bicycle contributions to social progress, great cyclists, and great bikes of the world. He includes statistics about bike-share programs and reasons for using bicycles to get around. As he did in other tales of community transformation, he decorates his text with cheerful pen-and-ink sketches with watercolor wash. Appropriately for the Netherlands, most of the people shown are white; Drummond correctly includes racially diverse cyclists and also provides a 1970s photograph in the author’s note showing a smiling rider of African descent. The note recalls his original goal: showing “how wonderful it feels to ride a bike, particularly in a city.” That joy is evident throughout; it might even convince some readers to give it a try.
Drummond rolls along with another successful story of environmental change. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-30527-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming year in the life of a most idyllic farm; horse lovers will be entranced.
Let’s go for a pony ride!
Lily, a young Black child who lives on a farm, takes readers on a tour. Meadows’ verse leads us step by step through the seasons—ponies grazing in a pasture on a warm day, Lily taking part in a pony show in autumn, and ponies hunkering down in the barn, taking refuge from the “frost and snow” of winter. The easy rhythm of the text pairs well with Cloud’s soft, pastoral vistas. While the story is delivered with a light touch, it still shows the hard work of caring for a large animal. “Soapy water in a pail. / Gentle strokes from head to tail.” “Pick the hooves / for stone and dirt / I notice when / my pony’s hurt.” Exuding familial warmth, the bright artwork lets readers follow Lily from pastures to picnics—and even, best of all, to the arrival of a newcomer: “A foal is born / New life is here.” This easy reader will speak to any child who has wished for a pony of their own and refreshingly centers a family of color—something not often seen in similar titles.
A charming year in the life of a most idyllic farm; horse lovers will be entranced. (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780593483169
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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