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COMMON CRITTERS

Name: COMMON CRITTERS
Author: Pat Brisson
ISBN: 978-0-88448-691-6

THE WILDLIFE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

by Pat Brisson ; illustrated by Dan Tavis ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2020

An uncommon introduction to poetry.

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Ordinary creatures are celebrated in verse.

Some mammals, birds, insects, and other creatures receive their charming due in this bouncy collection of brief rhymes. The poems read and generally scan very well; each critter is the star of its own verse. Featured creatures, familiar as glimpsed (mostly) in yards, gardens, parks, or on neighborhood strolls, include ants, robins, spiders, squirrels, honeybees, both caterpillars and butterflies, skunks, earthworms, and more. The poems are fun, and independent readers will enjoy the jaunty rhymes and rhythms. Poetry’s pleasures are best savored when recited, however, so kids who are already readers as well as listeners in laps and groups will relish hearing these selections aloud. These verses will well reward memorization, especially when lines like these (from “Crow”) are involved: “And could this fact be much absurder? / A group of you is called a murder!” Educators and parents will appreciate that the poems also provide interesting, easily digestible nuggets of scientific information. Delightful watercolor-and-ink cartoons add uncommon whimsy throughout and feature lush surroundings, shown additionally in lovely opening and closing spreads. Rhymes appear on verso pages with humorous portraits of critters; facing pages depict the animals in their accustomed settings. Further notes in the backmatter about the critters and poetry lend weight to the volume.

An uncommon introduction to poetry. (Picture book/poetry. 5-9)

Pub Date: April 7, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-88448-691-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Tilbury House

Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
THEY'RE HEROES, TOO
by Pat Brisson ; illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan

- BOOK REVIEW
BEFORE WE EAT
by Pat Brisson ; illustrated by Mary Azarian

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BEST AND HARDEST THING
by Pat Brisson

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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)