A fresh, welcome return for a time-tested tale.
After 30-plus years, McDonald’s acclaimed first title gets bright new illustrations in this reissue.
A hermit crab that’s outgrown his shell seeks a suitable replacement onshore—he needs to stay safe from porcupine fish. His investigations lead him from a too-heavy rock to a too-noisy tin can and on to driftwood (too dark), a plastic pail (too deep), and a burrow (too crowded). After rejecting a fishing net (“too many holes”), the hermit crab is swept out to sea, where a porcupine fish sets its sights on him. The crab races over to a sea snail, whose shell proves empty. Hermit Crab climbs inside, and the porcupine fish swims off. McDonald’s tale sparkles as brightly as ever, with patterned repetition perfect for both group and one-to-one sharing. A former children’s librarian, she helps young children identify with the tiny crab’s quest for safety and independence while tacitly acknowledging that they might know more about the inefficacy of the creature’s test homes. (Driftwood isn’t just dark inside; it floats. And a net’s more hole than not.) Tillotson’s vibrant mixed-media illustrations ramp up the drama early, with the porcupine fish looming offshore as Hermit Crab begins his search. The quest unfolds through double-page spreads, and it all comes to a satisfying resolution, with Hermit Crab in a new home that fits “just right.” Up-to-date facts on hermit crabs and resources are appended.
A fresh, welcome return for a time-tested tale. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780823452194
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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