An appealing addition to a nature collection.
Rhyming couplets describe a sea turtle’s suspenseful journey from egg to ocean.
This tale from the natural world opens with a full moon shining on a sandy beach. The dune is shown in cutaway view to reveal a nest of turtle eggs. Turn the page: The eggs crack, and a hatchling peeks out. Soon it’s digging its way out and crawling down toward the ocean. Danger lurks along the way—an owl, a dog, and crabs—but the turtle perseveres, finally swimming away through a coral reef and on to a seaweedy area of open ocean. Jordan directly addresses the turtle, urging it onward while describing, for readers, the sights and sounds of its journey. The rhyme and rhythm usually land. An author’s note identifies the turtle as a loggerhead, and the account is true to nature though somewhat anthropomorphized. The most jarring note occurs toward the end as the hatchling takes off into the water. “Catch the wave. Use your shell. / Surf, turtle. Ride the swell!” A turtle’s first swimming efforts are not at all like a surfer’s joyful glide. The illustrator echoes the anthropomorphic tone, endowing the tiny turtle with a most expressive face. Walker backs up, then closes in, using spreads and frames to indicate the passage of time. The owl’s threatening claws are particularly effective. This will show well to a small group and reads aloud smoothly.
An appealing addition to a nature collection. (advocacy tips) (Informational picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64567-152-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
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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