A reassuring portrayal of a remarkable event in an equally remarkable natural world.
Like the animals that live there, Louisiana wetlands can survive even a hurricane.
This lyrical text uses interesting imagery, informal rhyme, and an insistent rhythm to describe the world of the bayou and the wonder of a storm. Though it opens with a peaceful scene, readers and listeners are gently warned: “a faint breeze hints that a storm draws near.” Crabs scuttle, pelicans scoop, spoonbills stalk, and egrets flock. An alligator takes her babies into her den—carrying some in her mouth. Colors darken as waves and clouds move in. At the height of the storm, these double-page spreads become almost black; trees and swamp waters are barely visible. The hurricane is scary: “Pounding, / wailing, / hours endless. / Blasting, / breaking, / storm’s relentless.” But wetlands are resilient; these recover quickly. A black bear and her cubs appear; the alligator and her babies return. The story closes on a quiet note, with a warm sunset followed by a moonlit night. Even the dragonfly that opened the narrative has survived. An afterword reiterates the importance of coastal wetlands and offers further information about the animals described. Dunlavey’s impressionistic illustrations, done with watercolor, ink, pencil, paint, collage, and digital manipulation, are reasonably accurate but still full of mystery.
A reassuring portrayal of a remarkable event in an equally remarkable natural world. (Informational picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-449-81016-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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