An intriguing look at an unusual subject.
Explore the fascinating world of a fairy-tale–esque fungus.
In her debut picture book, Zimmermann, author of numerous short nonfiction articles for children’s magazines, invites her audience to look closely at mushrooms. In lyrical, attention-grabbing language, she describes mushrooms’ bizarre shapes and colors and remarkable smells—there are even mushrooms that smell like bubble gum! She goes on to mention foragers, both animal and human, and then turns to mushroom reproduction and the secret underground lives of these fungal blooms. Star-dusted double-page illustrations convey Green’s enthusiasm for the subject. Backgrounds of black night skies and deep-brown ground layers on several spreads underscore the mystery of mushroom existence. Green portrays other plant life as well, along with fauna, from a forest-floor perspective, and then follows mushroom spores into the clouds, where they help create rain. In the backmatter we learn that in Russia, a gentle rain that falls while the sun is shining is called a “mushroom rain,” hence the title of the book, and that the “largest known living organism on Earth” is a mushroom-producing fungus growing in a forest in eastern Oregon. With spare text and engaging pictures, this relatively simple nonfiction book would make an effective storytime presentation. The backmatter, printed in a scriptlike text, is clearly geared toward adults. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An intriguing look at an unusual subject. (Nonfiction picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-53411-150-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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
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