This diverse writer, sometimes poet, sometimes humorist, sometimes naturalist, explores the topic of wings—how they are shaped, what they are made of, and how they work for their animal owners. She describes how the long, narrow ones of the arctic tern help the birds soar on air currents, while the rounded ones of the owl give this predator faster takeoff, and the slim crescent-shaped wings of the swallow allow them to twist and turn through the air as they hunt flying insects. She discusses the other uses of wings: to scare off rivals, to attract a mate, to lure an enemy away from a nest, and to cool off a hot bird. The text is rich in details that will intrigue and interest young naturalists, though the format of a large-sized picture book may deter some older readers. Each double-page spread is illustrated with full-color paintings of the flyers discussed. While the illustrations are beautiful and accurate, the inclusion of so many different animals on the same double page without regard for size, or region of the world in which they live, could be distracting. For example, one set of pages shows a black vulture, a bald eagle, a barn owl, a barn swallow, a hummingbird, a great horned owl diving after a mouse, a hummingbird approaching a flower for nectar, a flock of swallows, and two Emperor penguins with baby. Visually it’s a lot to absorb. The more successful paintings show a single habitat—a meadow, for instance—and the plants and winged creatures that live in and around it. Additionally, a sequence that shows how a bat uses its wings to catch its lunch is especially effective. The author concludes with Web sites and addresses of organizations to contact for more information about conservation, a glossary, further reading, and a brief index. (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: March 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8234-1547-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Reports of children requesting rewrites of The Reluctant Dragon are rare at best, but this new version may be pleasing to young or adult readers less attuned to the pleasures of literary period pieces. Along with modernizing the language—“Hmf! This Beowulf fellow had a severe anger management problem”—DiTerlizzi dials down the original’s violence. The red-blooded Boy is transformed into a pacifistic bunny named Kenny, St. George is just George the badger, a retired knight who owns a bookstore, and there is no actual spearing (or, for that matter, references to the annoyed knight’s “Oriental language”) in the climactic show-fight with the friendly, crème-brulée-loving dragon Grahame. In look and spirit, the author’s finely detailed drawings of animals in human dress are more in the style of Lynn Munsinger than, for instance, Ernest Shepard or Michael Hague. They do, however, nicely reflect the bright, informal tone of the text. A readable, if denatured, rendition of a faded classic. (Fantasy. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4169-3977-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008
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