Unabashed enthusiasm, educational geography, and wacky critters—a fairly fun combination, eh?
Take a cross-Canada tour alongside some goofy-looking creatures.
Beginning with a ski vacay in British Columbia, with the Vancouver skyline featured prominently in the background, a cast of silly monsters traverse popular Canadian destinations. As the monsters and their diverse crowd of humans travel, they showcase unique natural environments (belugas in Northern Manitoba; lobster trapping in New Brunswick) and recognizable urban landscapes (looking at you, CN Tower) and dip into regional flare and traditions (kissing the cod in Newfoundland). Places are identified primarily by provincial crests, but they’re fairly small and easy to miss. In an authentic move that will either amuse or chagrin Canadian readers, Alberta and Saskatchewan woefully share a single-page spread while showy Ontario gets two. Told in lively rhyme, the travelogue is a little strained and groanworthy, but it scans well enough when read aloud. Illustrations are similarly madcap. Garishly bright colors and over-the-top facial expressions identify the bulbous monsters as the silly, nonthreatening variety. A beaver-tailed monster with a wagon full of Canadiana is particularly guffaw-inducing. While the full-bleed illustrations do tend toward loud and visually overwhelming, they well match the unrestrained rhyme and exuberant tone. At the back, a map usefully identifies the provinces and pinpoints the monsters’ stops. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Unabashed enthusiasm, educational geography, and wacky critters—a fairly fun combination, eh? (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781534111875
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off.
This rocket hopes to take its readers on a birthday blast—but there may or may not be enough fuel.
Once a year, a one-seat rocket shoots out from Earth. Why? To reveal a special congratulatory banner for a once-a-year event. The second-person narration puts readers in the pilot’s seat and, through a (mostly) ballad-stanza rhyme scheme (abcb), sends them on a journey toward the sun, past meteors, and into the Kuiper belt. The final pages include additional information on how birthdays are measured against the Earth’s rotations around the sun. Collingridge aims for the stars with this title, and he mostly succeeds. The rhyme scheme flows smoothly, which will make listeners happy, but the illustrations (possibly a combination of paint with digital enhancements) may leave the viewers feeling a little cold. The pilot is seen only with a 1960s-style fishbowl helmet that completely obscures the face, gender, and race by reflecting the interior of the rocket ship. This may allow readers/listeners to picture themselves in the role, but it also may divest them of any emotional connection to the story. The last pages—the backside of a triple-gatefold spread—label the planets and include Pluto. While Pluto is correctly labeled as a dwarf planet, it’s an unusual choice to include it but not the other dwarfs: Ceres, Eris, etc. The illustration also neglects to include the asteroid belt or any of the solar system’s moons.
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-18949-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: David Fickling/Phoenix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A quick but adventuresome paddle into a mysterious realm.
The ocean’s depths offer extra wonders to a child who is briefly left behind on a class trip.
In the wake of their Field Trip to the Moon (2019), a racially diverse group of students boards a submarine (yellow, but not that one) for a wordless journey to the ocean’s bottom. Donning pressure suits, the children follow their teacher past a swarm of bioluminescent squid, cluster around a black smoker, and pause at an old shipwreck before plodding back. One student, though, is too absorbed in taking pictures to catch the signal to depart and is soon alone amid ancient ruins—where a big, striped, friendly, finny creature who is more than willing to exchange selfies joins the child, but it hides away when the sub-bus swoops back into sight to pick up its stray. Though The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor (1994) carries a considerably richer informational load, in his easy-to-follow sequential panels Hare does accurately depict a spare assortment of benthic life and features, and he caps the outing with a labeled gallery of the errant student’s photos (including “Atlantis?” and “Pliosaur?”). The child is revealed at the end to be Black. Hare also adds cutaway views at the end of a diving suit and the sub. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 40% of actual size.)
A quick but adventuresome paddle into a mysterious realm. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4630-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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