A gentle, lovely introduction to a ubiquitous but lesser-known insect.
When Ben spots a queen bumblebee in the garden, his grandfather shares what he knows about its biology.
It turns out Grandpa knows an awful lot: that bumblebees nest underground, that their life cycle is metamorphic, that they pollinate foods such as strawberries, that wildflowers provide forage for them, that they hibernate through the winter, and more. Grandpa’s lessons play out over the course of a year, each season bringing new opportunities to share his knowledge with his curious, bespectacled grandson. (A concluding spread reinforces the information with a clear, annotated diagram.) Ben’s little sister, Hana Mae, provides humorous parallels to bumblebee behavior, as when Ben laughingly wraps her up in a blanket to mimic a bumblebee’s cocoon. Many spreads present the garden action on full-bleed pages; the white pages opposite feature blocks of text and close-up, scientifically accurate vignettes of the bumblebees in their nest. Occasional onomatopoeia is set in display type. Though the story focuses on bumblebees, young readers who have learned about honeybee biology will infer facts about differences between the insects, such as bumblebee queens’ solitary natures. The book doesn’t mention threats to bumblebees, just encouragement to nurture them. Illustrations suggest that Ben and Hana Mae are biracial, with an Asian-presenting mom and white-presenting dad and grandfather.
A gentle, lovely introduction to a ubiquitous but lesser-known insect. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781782508625
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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