Both gloriously expansive and goofy—in short, everything young readers could ask for.
Two rock formations build a friendship over time.
When drips of water enter a cave, they pick up minerals, creating two “nubs” that become a stalactite and a stalagmite. Spanning millions of years, their tale unfolds as a jaunty conversation between the two anthropomorphic characters, who witness major changes to the world. A trilobite comes and goes. Meteors end dinosaur life. The humor turns a bit dark at times. “Remember the giant ground sloth who loved to lick us?” the protagonists ask while an accompanying illustration shows the creature’s bones now resting in the cave. But there’s an underlying sweetness—and a true sense of wonder at the marvels that have occurred over the eons. As a brown-skinned human creates a cave painting, the nubs consider what they would draw if they could: “A picture of the whole infinite universe…Everyone who saw it would…find comfort finally knowing their place in its endless giganticness.” The nubs have expressive faces, and the mixed-media artwork lends a comic quality to the wonderfully tactile, collagelike spreads. A refrain of “drip, drip, drip” adds a visual and literary rhythm as the two friends literally grow closer, eventually forming a rock column. Beckmeyer has a gift for conveying heady doses of science with whimsy and humor; his wildly original tale is a poignant friendship tale, a master class in storytelling, and probing philosophy perfectly pitched to a young audience.
Both gloriously expansive and goofy—in short, everything young readers could ask for. (more information about the creatures in the story) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781665926638
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.
Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.
Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers. (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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
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