While most readers won’t become cheerleaders for poison ivy, they will at least come away with a greater understanding of...
Sanchez introduces a new perspective on this potentially itch-causing plant: Poison ivy plays a vital role in providing food for forest animals throughout the year, especially at times when other food is scarce.
While Sanchez litters the text with warnings about staying away from poison ivy (“Hairy vine—a warning sign!”), the focus is mostly on the plant’s importance to mammals, birds, insects, amphibians and reptiles. Urushiol, a chemical in its sap, may give humans an itchy rash, but animals are immune to its effects, so they can safely nibble its leaves, vines and berries, collect the nectar from its flowers, hide under its leafy, moist shade, and use its rootlets to line nests. Brickman nicely shows both the diversity of the leaves of the poison ivy plant (“Like snowflakes, no two poison ivy leaves are exactly alike”) and how it changes through the seasons. An artist’s note explains how the illustrations were created; surprisingly, no materials from nature were used—only painted paper cut and shaped and glued in place. The result is surprisingly realistic, though some of the larger mammals look a bit stiff. Backmatter answers some common questions about poison ivy.
While most readers won’t become cheerleaders for poison ivy, they will at least come away with a greater understanding of its importance and an increased ability to identify it. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62091-445-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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