A fervent tribute to a treasured natural resource.
An invitation to marvel at, and care for, North America’s largest sources of surface fresh water.
Dug out by a massive ice sheet and just 3,000 or so years old in their current form, the Great Lakes are the “youngest major geological feature on the planet,” as Rosenstock writes. She traces the course of a drop of water as it drains from Lake Superior (the deepest) to each lake in succession and then past Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean—a trip that takes around 300 years and passes more miles of U.S. coastline than the Atlantic and Pacific coasts combined. She also sounds an alarm at the threats posed by habitat destruction, pollution, and invasive species in the wake of the arrival of European settlers. Christoph’s opening scenes of native wildlife and unspoiled natural beauty give way to views of human use, including both a racially diverse group of modern young people drinking, cooking, and bathing and earlier Indigenous residents in canoes, harvesting “only what they needed.” Then, images of clear-cut forests and waters polluted enough to catch fire are followed by a glimpse of environmental protesters led by figures in Native American ceremonial garb. Rosenstock invites readers to do their part by caring for wild places and conserving fresh water, after Great Lakes caretaker Kathleen Smith (Enrolled Member, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community) chimes in with a statement of support in the backmatter.
A fervent tribute to a treasured natural resource. (author’s note, source list) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780593374351
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A good overview of this complex, essential organ, with an energetic seasoning of silliness.
An introduction to the lead guitar and vocalist for the Brainiacs—the human brain.
The brain (familiar to readers of Seluk’s “The Awkward Yeti” webcomic, which spun off the adult title Heart and Brain, 2015) looks like a dodgeball with arms and legs—pinkish, sturdy, and roundish, with a pair of square-framed spectacles bestowing an air of importance and hipness. Other organs of the body—tongue, lungs, stomach, muscle, and heart—are featured as members of the brain’s rock band (the verso of the dust jacket is a poster of the band). Seluk’s breezy, conversational prose and brightly colored, boldly outlined cartoon illustrations deliver basic information. The brain’s role in keeping the heart beating and other automatic functions, directing body movements, interpreting sights and sounds, remembering smells and tastes, and regulating sleep and hunger are all explained, prose augmented by dialogue balloons and information sidebars. Seluk points out, importantly, that feelings originate in the brain: “You can control how you react…but your feelings happen no matter what.” The parodied album covers on the front endpapers (including the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Green Day, Run DMC, Queen, Nirvana) will amuse parents—or at least grandparents—and the rear endpapers serve up band members’ clever social media and texting screenshots. Backmatter includes a glossary and further brain trivia but no resources or bibliography.
A good overview of this complex, essential organ, with an energetic seasoning of silliness. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-16700-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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