A straightforward, wide-ranging survey that should be a welcome addition to the nature shelf.
From birds, bats, and butterflies to grass-eating land mammals to whales and fish, animals migrate as their needs and the seasons change.
Gibbons draws on years of experience introducing the natural world to very young readers and listeners to explain an important concept: animal migration. Using a wide variety of examples, she explains both the why and some theories about the how. After a brief introduction, she organizes her presentation topically: migration routes; migration in the sky, on land, and in the water; and finally, how people see and learn about migrations. Each colorful spread includes exposition in large font, definitions in a smaller font, and vignettes of many different species, each pictured on a relevant background (penguins on ice floes, reindeer in a snowy evergreen forest, zebras on grasslands, etc.). Most include hand-drawn maps of the globe showing species-specific migration paths. The animals are generally recognizable and always labeled. Where humans are shown, they are usually white-skinned. An afterword, curiously titled “Let’s Get Going,” includes a variety of additional facts including a mention of one effect of global warming. While there are many titles about specific migratory journeys for a young audience, few are so encompassing. Marian Berkes’ Going Home, illustrated by Jennifer DiRubbio (2010), presents examples but does not pull back for an overall look at the topic till the backmatter.
A straightforward, wide-ranging survey that should be a welcome addition to the nature shelf. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4065-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
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
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort.
A look at the unique ways that 11 globe-spanning animal species construct their homes.
Each creature garners two double-page spreads, which Cherrix enlivens with compelling and at-times jaw-dropping facts. The trapdoor spider constructs a hidden burrow door from spider silk. Sticky threads, fanning from the entrance, vibrate “like a silent doorbell” when walked upon by unwitting insect prey. Prairie dogs expertly dig communal burrows with designated chambers for “sleeping, eating, and pooping.” The largest recorded “town” occupied “25,000 miles and housed as many as 400 million prairie dogs!” Female ants are “industrious insects” who can remove more than a ton of dirt from their colony in a year. Cathedral termites use dirt and saliva to construct solar-cooled towers 30 feet high. Sasaki’s lively pictures borrow stylistically from the animal compendiums of mid-20th-century children’s lit; endpapers and display type elegantly suggest the blues of cyanotypes and architectural blueprints. Jarringly, the lead spread cheerfully extols the prowess of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef, “the world’s largest living structure,” while ignoring its accelerating, human-abetted destruction. Calamitously, the honeybee hive is incorrectly depicted as a paper-wasps’ nest, and the text falsely states that chewed beeswax “hardens into glue to shape the hive.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort. (selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5625-9
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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