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BLUE PLANET

Name: BLUE PLANET
Author: Moira Butterfield
ISBN: 978-1-944530-96-9

LIFE IN OUR OCEANS AND RIVERS

From the Colors of the World series

by Moira Butterfield ; illustrated by Jonathan Woodward ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019

A serviceable early introduction to watery environments and some of their residents, wild and otherwise.

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Broad overviews of both the water cycle and the varieties of life in waters fresh and salty.

In simple language broken up into one- or two-sentence blocks, Butterfield leads a tour of our planet’s five oceans and select biomes at their edges and various depths, then moves on to the four largest rivers and a half-dozen named representative lakes. A spread of boats and another of aquatic homes on various continents acknowledge human use, capped by glances at a community well and a water-treatment plant that lead to a final appeal not to waste or spoil our “sparkling treasure!” Woodward crowds most of the natural locales with characteristic wildlife, much of it seen close up, all reasonably accurately rendered in what looks like layered, painted paper collage. Human figures are rare and distant but seem to be matched to their diverse locales. In the co-published Green Planet: Life in Our Woods and Forests, the scene shifts to woodsy settings for basic pictures of tree types and metabolism plus glimpses of rainforest insects and spider monkeys, grizzly bears in snowy boreal forests, owls and other residents of deciduous woods, and arboreal human dwellings (albeit with no humans in sight).

A serviceable early introduction to watery environments and some of their residents, wild and otherwise. (index) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-944530-96-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: 360 Degrees

Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
SOMETIMES I’M A BABY BEAR, SOMETIMES I’M A SNAIL
by Moira Butterfield ; illustrated by Gwen Millward

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEELS!
by Moira Butterfield ; illustrated by Bryony Clarkson

- BOOK REVIEW
LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN THE WOODS
by Moira Butterfield ; illustrated by Jesús Verona

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?

From the What if You Had . . .? series

by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Howard McWilliam ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2024

Another playful imagination-stretcher.

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Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.

As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.

Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)