A good, green read.
A fanciful approach to raising children’s consciousness about conservation.
Rhyming text introduces the titular conundrum with the opening line, “There’s a Rang-tan in my bedroom,” delivered by a child with brown skin and straight, dark hair. Accompanying colorful art shows an orangutan wreaking havoc in the child’s home—throwing away chocolate, howling at shampoo—until the child finally asks why the animal is there. The following pages, set in a forest, switch perspective, with the orangutan’s narration: “There’s a human in my forest, and I don’t know what to do.” The text goes on to explain that the human presence in the rainforest is linked to clear-cutting in order to grow palm trees for palm oil used in products like chocolate and shampoo. (These facts are also detailed in both a foreword by actor and conservationist Emma Thompson and the backmatter, which specifies Indonesia as the place where orangutans live in the wild.) Now the child knows what to do: organize! Moved by the orangutan’s plight, the child writes letters to corporations asking them to curb deforestation, and backmatter provides readers with practical, accessible steps to do the same. Preston-Gannon’s illustrations feature characters both human and animal with big, round eyes and soft outlines; the scenes of bulldozers laying waste to the forest are unsurprisingly upsetting. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-21-inch double-page spreads viewed at 18.4% of actual size.)
A good, green read. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62371-873-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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