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HONEY BEES

Name: HONEY BEES
Author: Jill Esbaum
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2713-1

From the Explore My World series

by Jill Esbaum ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2017

Serviceable text is lifted by thrilling photography.

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A colorful introduction to the honeybee.

Paired with stunning photographs, many in extreme close-up, straightforward text informs readers about honeybees and their hives. The text, aimed at newly independent readers, works hard to be accessible: a worker bee “sips the runny nectar through her straw-like tongue and stores it in a special, just-for-honey tummy.” A small, circular callout adds that the “tongue is called a proboscis (pro-bohs-kis).” The connection between that nectar and the honey the bees are arguably best known for is elided, however, in favor of a brief overview of the role of the queen, larval development, and a teaser about the fact that “hives can be found in unusual places,” including “human-made hives.” Six pages of additional text at a somewhat more advanced level discuss the different roles worker bees play, honey (finally), and pollination (wrongly implying that honeybees pollinate tomatoes). A simple maze and a mystifying diagram of the waggle dance conclude the book; both activities are negligible. But the reason to buy this book is the photographs, crisp, astonishingly detailed, and many at such close range that individual grains of pollen can be easily discerned; they, more than the text, will have readers rapt.

Serviceable text is lifted by thrilling photography. (Informational early reader. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4263-2713-1

Page Count: 36

Publisher: National Geographic Kids

Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
PARROTFISH HAS A SUPERPOWER
by Jill Esbaum ; illustrated by Bob Shea

- BOOK REVIEW
BIRD GIRL
by Jill Esbaum ; illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

- BOOK REVIEW
STINKBIRD HAS A SUPERPOWER
by Jill Esbaum ; illustrated by Bob Shea

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FIND MOMO EVERYWHERE

From the Find Momo series , Vol. 7

by Andrew Knapp ; illustrated by Andrew Knapp ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.

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Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.

Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.

A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781683693864

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Quirk Books

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
LET'S FIND MOMO!
by Andrew Knapp ; photographed by Andrew Knapp

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WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?

From the What if You Had . . .? series

by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Howard McWilliam ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2024

Another playful imagination-stretcher.

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Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.

As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.

Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)