Every one of Wenzel’s beasties, from the “common” house cat to the mouth-dropping whale shark, exhibits an exuberant spark...
Caldecott honoree (They All Saw a Cat, 2016) Wenzel’s graphic love letter to all us earthlings is a hallelujah chorus to life in all its glorious shapes and forms.
Each page is a visual testament to the Sesame Street axiom “different yet the same.” The white cat leads off to the black, which then takes readers to the black bear, the black-and-white panda, the stripey zebra, and its finny eponymous cousin, the zebra fish. This natural progression opens readers’ minds to the fact that we have more in common with one another than not—but for one alarming distinction. Between 200 and 2,000 species are going extinct each year. Wenzel immortalizes his favorite examples of our planet’s exceptional inhabitants, including us, using a variety of artistic media and tools (cut paper, colored pencil, oils, pastels, markers, etc.) to amazing effect. Dynamic images cavorting, reclining, flying, or dancing across and around stark white pages snag both emotions and imaginations. The spare, rhyming text united by the bridging greeting of “Hello” places all creatures on the same interconnected playing field. In the backmatter, the author identifies all his stars on two double-page spreads in order of appearance and notes their status when applicable: vulnerable to critically endangered.
Every one of Wenzel’s beasties, from the “common” house cat to the mouth-dropping whale shark, exhibits an exuberant spark of life that will delight readers everywhere—and hopefully encourage in them an awareness of their plights. (Picture book. 3-10)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5014-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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