Illuminating, even literally—but better regarded as a showcase for the artist than a full topical study.
A tally of natural and manufactured light sources, all atmospherically depicted.
With visual effects ranging from ghostly to dazzling, Peot opens with a glow-in-the-dark crystal jellyfish on the cover, then goes on to depict lightning and fireworks, fireflies, fungi, certain deep sea squid, and several other sources of luminosity, all shining in subtle blends of color against deep black backgrounds. Parsimonious when it comes to word count but not vocabulary, she specifically names each—“Mycena singeri (meye-SEE-nuh sin-JE-ree) gleam. // Clusterwink snails blink. // Dinoflagellates (DEYE-noh-fla-juh-litz) sparkle”—and in closing notes adds details and definitions to go with lists of audience-appropriate books and websites. “Stars twinkle” in a final spangled scene, but Peot never explains why, nor do light-shedding minerals, LEDs, or lava (among many other light sources) make the cut…so student readers will find the broader catalog in Walter Wick’s A Ray of Light (2019) helpful. Still, the art is infused with a contagious sense of wonder, and even younger audiences will benefit from the exposure to scientific nomenclature. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Illuminating, even literally—but better regarded as a showcase for the artist than a full topical study. (index) (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4872-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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 mixed bag.
An alphabetical tour of emotions.
This British import mixes words that many young kids will know, such as brave, kind, and mad (the last defined in the American sense, as angry), with less-familiar ones such as overwhelmed and vulnerable. It even features at least one word that may be new to adults: “X is for Xenial….Xenial is being welcoming to strangers.” Compounding the difficulty here, the visual image of a Black kid dressed as a magician hugging a rabbit they’ve pulled out of a hat does not exactly illustrate xeniality (xenialness?). Other illustrations do a better job of helping readers understand the words being introduced. The illustrations feature racially diverse children and are usually paired in each double-page spread: “A is for Anxious. Anxious is feeling really worried about something. / B is for Brave. Brave is being nervous about something and doing it anyway.” On the A page, a brown-skinned kid cowers from the dragon that encircles their bed, as in a nightmare. Across the gutter on the B page, the ferociously scowling child confronts the now-intimidated monster. Kids will get an immediate sense of those two words. Animals, real and imaginary, often play a role in the pictures. The book will be best shared one on one or in very small groups, when children can really spend time examining the pictures and talking about their own impression of what is happening in each picture. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A mixed bag. (word list) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20519-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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