Another way we are all linked by our differences; rewarding reading for everyone who eats.
A wide-angled overview of the foods that sustain and entertain us.
Taking a resolutely international approach, the authors—one a poet, the other a trained chef—offer terse but taste-tempting descriptions of hundreds of dishes prepared worldwide with dozens of fruits, vegetables, meats, herbs, spices, nuts, and sweets. After priming readers to think of food analytically in terms of taste, smell, and texture, they launch their survey with various savory examples made with “Remarkable Rice” or “Amazing Maize,” from Italian risotto (which “you must, must, MUST keep stirring as you cook, because this helps it become really oozy”) to noodles like Ukrainian lokshyna. Along with the multitude of entrees, side courses aplenty look at tableware, the dangers of overfishing, how to say delicious in 15 languages, and more on the way to pages of desserts and a closing map of all the countries featured (with, characteristically, “The End” in 18 languages). Lynas’ brightly colored images of, mostly, children diverse in race and ethnicity who appear eager to chow down on yummy-looking provender make all of this even easier to digest. Though some widely consumed ingredients don’t earn separate entries (neither barley nor honey makes the cut, for instance), the menu does extend to insects and even (if under the heading “Fake food”) meat grown in labs or made from plants.
Another way we are all linked by our differences; rewarding reading for everyone who eats. (Nonfiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9798887770185
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
It’s got a few quirky bits, but it’s lackluster overall.
Pop-up dinosaurs, both fossilized and fully fleshed out, join Mesozoic contemporaries in a series of museum displays.
The single-topic spreads are up-to-date but designed to evoke the dusty atmosphere of old-style dinosaur halls (emphasizing this conceit, some are even labeled “Rooms”). They combine cramped blocks of information in smallish type with images of beasts and bones done in a style that resembles the faded naturalism of early-20th-century museum murals—or, in the “Fossil Room,” a desktop covered in paleontological notes with paper clips and coffee stains. Occasional inset spinners and attached booklets supply additional dino details. A tab-activated flipbook attempts to demonstrate tectonic drift, but readers have to go fairly slowly to assimilate it all, which blunts the effect. Amid pale silhouettes representing modern museum visitors, the prehistoric creatures, nearly all of which are small and drably colored, rear up individually or parade along in sedate, motley groups until a closing display and mention of genetic engineering promise a possible future with pet velociraptors.
It’s got a few quirky bits, but it’s lackluster overall. (Informational pop-up picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9687-0
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Branches gently out into both natural science and human culture, albeit sparely.
A sweet sifting of tree- and forest-related facts and folklore.
Calling on the testimony of beasts and breezes for more far-flung topics, “Oakheart the Brave,” a gnarled oak with anthropomorphic features, offers an easygoing overview of forest types, seeds, tree fruits, and seasonal cycles interspersed with fragmentary versions of old tales. These last range from the story of how Nimue trapped Merlin and a heavily pruned account of an intrepid Hungarian lad who scales a “Sky-High Tree” to a Persian encounter between a wise girl and an invisible dragon beneath “The Tree of Life.” Other tales included hail from India, Scotland, and Norway. The “secret life” motif comes out occasionally, most clearly in explanations of the functions of each tree layer from bark on in. The notion that forests both give and need protection forms a strong secondary theme—leading up to a closing set of “How To Be Tree-Happy” activities such as recycling paper products and planting acorns to make new oaks. Mineker’s delicately detailed illustrations mix spot art with floating woodscapes as airy and uncluttered as the narrative. Human figures, though small and not common, do sport subtle differences in skin hues and generic period or regional dress.
Branches gently out into both natural science and human culture, albeit sparely. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-5002-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Words & Pictures
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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