A breezy, information-packed, visually attractive explanation of an important elementary school science topic.
Joulia Copernicus, a young scientist in a white lab coat and safety goggles, returns to help readers learn why seasons exist.
In the jaunty first-person narration readers will remember from series opener It’s a Round, Round World! (2019), Joulia tells why many think the Earth has seasons: its orbit around the sun and its rotation. She demonstrates why these theories are incorrect and then introduces the answer: the role of Earth’s tilt. The logical structure starts with misconceptions and moves toward understanding, but it is the full-color illustrations, bristling with fun details pertaining to the seasons and anthropomorphic planetary bodies, that make this book stand out. Joulia’s obvious enthusiasm, accessible language, and the use of sequential visual formats actively involve kids in thinking about scientific concepts. The last page explains how Johannes Kepler’s discovery about 400 years ago regarding the Earth’s path has led to some of our confusion and also gives instructions for a simple experiment. Joulia presents white, as do the two other humans depicted. While other, diverse characters would be welcome, it’s good to see a capable girl excited about science. The seasons are those readers in the northern U.S. will recognize, although Joulia explains how variations occur near the equator and in the Southern Hemisphere.
A breezy, information-packed, visually attractive explanation of an important elementary school science topic. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63592-136-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched.
An amiable introduction to our thrifty, sociable, teeming insect cousins.
Bunting notes that all the ants on Earth weigh roughly the same as all the people and observes that ants (like, supposedly, us) love recycling, helping others, and taking “micronaps.” They, too, live in groups, and their “superpower” is an ability to work together to accomplish amazing things. Bunting goes on to describe different sorts of ants within the colony (“Drone. Male. Does no housework. Takes to the sky. Reproduces. Drops dead”), how they communicate using pheromones, and how they get from egg to adult. He concludes that we could learn a lot from them that would help us leave our planet in better shape than it was when we arrived. If he takes a pass on mentioning a few less positive shared traits (such as our tendency to wage war on one another), still, his comparisons do invite young readers to observe the natural world more closely and to reflect on our connections to it. In the simple illustrations, generic black ants look up at viewers with little googly eyes while scurrying about the pages gathering food, keeping nests clean, and carrying outsized burdens.
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567784
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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