Reluctant young scientists are sure to enjoy this fanciful introduction to pond life.
Craig (Try, Try, Try, 2016, etc.) offers a beginner’s science book, illustrated by Tan (Listening with My Heart, 2017, etc.), which tells of peculiar characters studying Earth’s life-forms.
The otherworldly titular scientists are brightly colored creatures, vaguely round or pear-shaped, with a variety of eye quantities and forms (including eye-stalks) and even antennae. Tan delightfully and humorously depicts them in an opening spread showing the book’s pond setting. When the text begins, it’s in two sections: a beautifully designed, rhyming text box offers accessible scientific information, and separate dialogue between the scientists tells of their mission to “save Taddy Tadpole.” They’re there to observe Taddy and its siblings and to make sure that Taddy survives to adulthood. A few sections, such as one that focuses on the tadpoles’ predators, may make young readers concerned for both the amphibians and scientists, and the frog-growth timeline is quite condensed. Still, Craig packs a lot of information into a small amount of text. Tan’s illustrations mix realism with anthropomorphism; all the pond residents are accurately labeled, with the exception of an axolotl labeled as a salamander. Endnotes offer more in-depth scientific discussion.
Reluctant young scientists are sure to enjoy this fanciful introduction to pond life.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9967212-5-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Owlbop Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
The greeting-card art and jokey rhymes work for the baby-shower market but not for the youngest readers.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring through rhymed puns and sentimental art.
The title sets the scene for what’s to come: The owl asks the owlet as they fly together, “WHOO loves you?”; the kangaroo and joey make each other “very HOPPY”; and the lioness and cub are a “PURRRFECT pair.” Most of the puns are both unimaginative and groanworthy, and they are likely to go over the heads of toddlers, who are not know for their wordplay abilities. The text is set in abcb quatrains split over two double-page spreads. On each spread, one couplet appears on the verso within a lightly decorated border on pastel pages. On the recto, a full-bleed portrait of the animal and baby appears in softly colored and cozy images. Hearts are prominent on every page, floating between the parent and baby as if it is necessary to show the love between each pair. Although these critters are depicted in mistily conceived natural habitats and are unclothed, they are human stand-ins through and through.
The greeting-card art and jokey rhymes work for the baby-shower market but not for the youngest readers. (Board book. 6 mos-2)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-1374-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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