Enlightening, interactive animal fun.
How tough could it be to find an elephant?
“Elephant journal” in hand, Alex, our tan-skinned young narrator, is determined to track down a pachyderm. Alex quizzes a giraffe and some meerkats but, while questioning a tree-twining boa, fails to notice a long, gray, fruit-plucking trunk below. As Alex talks to a rhino, the hindquarters of another pachyderm can be glimpsed disappearing into the underbrush. Crouching in a nest amid huge eggs, our oblivious narrator interrogates a cranky-looking vulture; later, Alex queries an irate lion, missing many elephants off in the distance. The next page reveals Alex inside the lion’s belly, consulting a zebra who’s also been eaten by the big cat (both are intact), while five elephants walk by outside, unseen. In a crocodile-infested river, Alex straddles an open jaw, overlooking the elephant group on the far shore (as well as the croc chomping on the narrator’s backpack). Perched on an enormous termite mound, Alex again misses out on the elephants. Finally, concluding that “elephants are so hard to find,” Alex pulls out a “Tiger Journal,” beginning a new quest by querying…an elephant! Delightful watercolorlike illustrations in earthy tones are engaging and will have kids eagerly pointing out everything that Alex misses—make room for this one at storytime. Three spreads feature pages from Alex’s journal, with facts on elephant families, intelligence, diet, and more.
Enlightening, interactive animal fun. (how to make your own journal, resources) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781525306747
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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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