An up-close look at species reintroduction for readers not quite ready for Jean Craighead George’s The Wolves are Back...
A family of Mexican gray wolves, the lobos of the title, born in captivity, are successfully returned to the wild.
Adapted from an essay in Wolf Haven: Sanctuary and the Future of Wolves in North America (2016), a book of striking photographs for adults, this stand-alone title shows and tells the story of a family, beginning with a pair of parents, “Mother and Father Wolf” and their newborn pups. After a year of growth, the family is transported from their supervised sanctuary in the Pacific Northwest to a ranch in southern New Mexico. There, to everyone’s surprise, the mother gives birth to another litter. These wolves learn to hunt for themselves and are ultimately transported again, this time across the border to be set free in the Mexican wilderness, to augment an endangered population near extinction. Appealing photographs will inspire even fledgling readers to attempt this well-designed story of environmental good news. Each spread includes a full-bleed image or set of images and, usually, a vignette. Though set legibly in short lines, the poetic text includes some challenging vocabulary. Pictures of human interactions are explained in the text, but the wolf pictures have no labels and are not always of the family described, hence the backmatter note, “based on the true story.” The backmatter also provides further information, a timeline, and resources.
An up-close look at species reintroduction for readers not quite ready for Jean Craighead George’s The Wolves are Back (illustrated by Wendell Minor, 2008). (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63217-084-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
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 introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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