A pleasant introduction to ocean inhabitants that will show well at storytime.
A bottlenose dolphin calf and her pod lead a lost baby whale from the shallow waters of the Great Barrier Reef to his mother in the deep open ocean.
From dawn through dusk and night to morning, Bailey follows a young dolphin on an improbable adventure. As in previous titles about the savanna, the Antarctic, and the rainforest in this appealing series, the author/illustrator portrays the waters around Australia as full of wildlife. The front endpapers identify 41 different “animals of the ocean shallows,” while the rear ones show 28 “animals of the ocean deep.” Many are also pictured in the engaging illustrations within. This is good, as child readers are likely to be more caught up in identifying the creatures than gripped by the slim story. These crisp, simple images successfully show the difference between the colorful, sunlit reef environment and the darker ocean, but they don’t quite convey the striking difference in population density. Furthermore, the blacktip reef shark and the giant moray eel, which in real life prefer the shallower waters around the reef, are pictured as deep-ocean inhabitants. Some useful facts about the dolphins are sprinkled into the narrative: They communicate in squeaks, clicks, and whistles; they work together to hunt; and, like other mammals, they breathe air and their calves drink milk.
A pleasant introduction to ocean inhabitants that will show well at storytime. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-41-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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