Attractive illustrations struggle to convey adequate information about fungi.
A quirky introduction to fungi, translated from Italian.
In the first pages, small, pink-skinned Leo rides a bus, then fantasizes about an alternative identity as a fungus. A fungus, he says, could be hard to spot—indeed, since readers may not yet know what a fungus is. When we’re shown a variety of fungal forms, they all look like mushrooms, and Leo is later depicted as a typical hemisphere-on-a-stem. Bystander creatures eventually offer some information: “A fungus is a tangle of tiny tubes.” Incongruously, fungal bodies are said to change shape constantly, “like a bowl of spaghetti.” (Do noodles mutate?) The statement “A fungus is always growing in different directions” is accompanied by a potentially confusing image of a rather menacing, yellow, not-to-scale, boalike creature invading a house and garden, and a fungus is shown eating some dismayed children’s birthday cake. But the author also notes a positive aspect of fungi: their potential to clean up pollution. Known for her spare, shapely designs, Stella uses flat, often geometric forms and primary colors to emphasize the paradoxical nature of fungi: living organisms that are neither plants nor animals. The backmatter presents more information, but words that might help readers associate fungi with their own understanding of the world—for instance, rot, rash, compost, microscopic, or antibiotic—are not to be found. The pictures are pleasing, but how much readers will learn here is questionable. Characters vary in skin tone.
Attractive illustrations struggle to convey adequate information about fungi. (a few things we know about fungi, glossary, bibliography, further reading) (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9798765627136
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
An introduction to gravity.
The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668936849
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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