An unusual focus on one way humans and animals can coexist in our world.
All over the world, humans build crossings to allow wildlife to pass freely over, under, across, and through busy highways.
Overpasses, underpasses, even rope bridges are the focus of this intriguing informational picture book. Duffield provides 12 examples of animal passages built for regular use or seasonal migration. A particularly nice touch is the map at the end, a shadowy map of continents with each animal appropriately placed and a few more facts about their situations. Elephants, pangolins, red crabs, koalas, squirrel gliders, and blue penguins come from the Eastern Hemisphere; elk, black bears, spotted salamanders, coyotes, panthers, and titi monkeys from the Western. Clean, crisp illustrations on double-page spreads show well, making this a good choice for a group read-aloud. There’s a two-level text, a simple sentence in a large font stating animal, crossing technology, and location, the smaller paragraphs providing further information about planning, specialized building, and uses. One early spread focuses on construction, showing a gender- and racially diverse human team and several big machines—drawing in readers and listeners more interested in equipment than animals. The story in pictures is nicely rounded, beginning with a question about the fate of a mother panther and her cub facing a car on a highway and ending with mother and cub safe on a cliff high above it. Readers can see the arching bridge that made that possible. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 85.5% of actual size.)
An unusual focus on one way humans and animals can coexist in our world. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6579-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A boon for beaver storytimes or young naturalists living near beaver streams.
Readers learn about a keystone species and the habitat they create.
In a “House That Jack Built” style (though minus the cumulative repetition), Sonenshine introduces children to beavers. Beginning with a beaver who’s just gnawed down a willow near their lodge, the author moves on to the dam that blocks the stream and protects their domed home and then to the yearlings that are working to repair it with sticks and mud. Muskrats and a musk turtle take advantage of the safety of the beavers’ lodge, while Coyote tries (and fails) to breach it. Then the book turns to other animals that enjoy the benefits of the pond the beavers have created: goose, ducklings, heron, moose. While the beavers aren’t in all these illustrations, evidence of them is. And then suddenly a flood takes out both the dam and the beavers’ lodge. So, the beavers move upstream to find a new spot to dam and build again, coming full circle back to the beginning of the book. Hunter’s ink-and–colored pencil illustrations have a scratchy style that is well suited to the beavers’ pelts, their watery surroundings, and the other animals that share their habitat. Careful observers will be well rewarded by the tiny details. Beavers are mostly nocturnal, which isn’t always faithfully depicted by Hunter. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A boon for beaver storytimes or young naturalists living near beaver streams. (beaver facts, glossary, further resources) (Informational picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1868-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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