A clear, well-organized presentation likely to make readers and listeners want to know more about the “Shark Lady” and her...
Fascinated with sharks from childhood, Eugenie Clark spent a lifetime researching these “magnificent and misunderstood” creatures.
At a time when women were discouraged from even entering professional fields, Eugenie Clark (1922-2015) pioneered shark research in and out of the water. She swam with sharks of all sorts. She opened the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory (now Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium) in Florida and proved that they could be trained. She dove into caves to see fearsome requiem sharks quietly being cleaned by tiny remora fish. Lang’s welcome picture-book biography introduces a trailblazing female scientist to very young readers and listeners. She demonstrates young Genie’s early passion by describing her weekly visits to the New York Aquarium, her childhood apartment full of fish and reptiles, and her habit of taking notes. She goes on to summarize a long, productive career with a few well-chosen examples. Her story is nicely rounded in text and illustrations with scenes showing Clark with her nose against the glass in the New York Aquarium as a child and from a submersible as an adult. Solano’s illustrations, mostly double-page spreads, emphasize the darkness and mystery of the underwater world; occasionally they include faux notebook pages with simple facts about the species. The prejudice Clark experienced as a Japanese-American is revealed only in the author’s note, however.
A clear, well-organized presentation likely to make readers and listeners want to know more about the “Shark Lady” and her favorite creatures. (more about sharks, selected sources) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-2187-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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