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TALL TALL TREE

Name: TALL TALL TREE
Author: Anthony D. Fredericks
ISBN: 978-1-58469-602-5

by Anthony D. Fredericks ; illustrated by Chad Wallace ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2017

From a publisher devoted to connecting children and nature, a worthwhile exploration of a fascinating aerial habitat.

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Fredericks presents 10 species that dwell in Northern California’s towering redwood forests.

A northern spotted owl welcomes readers in an introductory “Dear Humans” note, explaining that by climbing the redwoods, scientists have discovered the rich complexity of animal life high in the canopy. From one “single soaring Eagle” to “ten spotted Ladybugs,” the species are depicted in their environments. “Six chattering Chipmunks” cavort upon a humus mat made of decomposing needles and other debris, while “seven busy Bumblebees” visit a huckleberry bush growing high above. The rhyming verses aren’t artful, but they successfully introduce Wallace’s detailed natural settings and the one-to-10 counting scheme. Each fourth line reads “And now comes number…”—providing predictability that a wide age range will find engaging. Wallace’s compositions depict the animals in varying niches in the huge tree. Three salamanders hunt insects in the shaggy bark, while eight bats roost in a dark hollow. A final spread requires a quarter-turn of the book in order to marvel at the height and breadth of a redwood grove, where the white family from the cover appears, antlike, silhouetted below. The excellent aftermatter includes a section with facts and 10 additional animals to find. Pages for parents and teachers provide STEAM activities, websites, and more.

From a publisher devoted to connecting children and nature, a worthwhile exploration of a fascinating aerial habitat. (Informational picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-58469-602-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Dawn Publications

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
AROUND ONE LOG
by Anthony D. Fredericks & illustrated by Jennifer DiRubbio

- BOOK REVIEW
UNDER ONE ROCK
by Anthony D. Fredericks & illustrated by Jennifer DiRubbio

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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ANIMAL ARCHITECTS

From the Amazing Animals series

by Amy Cherrix ; illustrated by Chris Sasaki ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 7, 2021

An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort.

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A look at the unique ways that 11 globe-spanning animal species construct their homes.

Each creature garners two double-page spreads, which Cherrix enlivens with compelling and at-times jaw-dropping facts. The trapdoor spider constructs a hidden burrow door from spider silk. Sticky threads, fanning from the entrance, vibrate “like a silent doorbell” when walked upon by unwitting insect prey. Prairie dogs expertly dig communal burrows with designated chambers for “sleeping, eating, and pooping.” The largest recorded “town” occupied “25,000 miles and housed as many as 400 million prairie dogs!” Female ants are “industrious insects” who can remove more than a ton of dirt from their colony in a year. Cathedral termites use dirt and saliva to construct solar-cooled towers 30 feet high. Sasaki’s lively pictures borrow stylistically from the animal compendiums of mid-20th-century children’s lit; endpapers and display type elegantly suggest the blues of cyanotypes and architectural blueprints. Jarringly, the lead spread cheerfully extols the prowess of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef, “the world’s largest living structure,” while ignoring its accelerating, human-abetted destruction. Calamitously, the honeybee hive is incorrectly depicted as a paper-wasps’ nest, and the text falsely states that chewed beeswax “hardens into glue to shape the hive.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort. (selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)