It's super beetle! The life cycle of the ladybug is presented with splashy colored pencil illustrations, which leap off the page. The illustrator heightens the visual contrast by putting the red and black beetle on a bright yellow flower petal and placing the orange and purple larva against a broad green leaf. This dramatic telling, a first picture book by the author/illustrator, will appeal to the lovers of the animated movies Antz and Bug Story as it describes the battle of the bugs, and shows them up close and huge. When the story begins, the coffeecupsized ladybug, is resting on the petal of a black eyed Susan. The ricesized eggs she lays on a leaf hatch into wriggling larva, which scurry away leaving just the one who is the main character. She soon sets to lunch on aphids the size of golf balls. After eating fifteen aphids, the larva splits her skin and emerges as a fierce purpleandorange predator, ready for more meals. Life is not all lunch, however, the larva must escape the menacing ants, and later, the fully developed ladybug, must outwit an inquisitive praying mantis. The author follows the development of the ladybug from egg to adult through brief, but exciting and detailed text. For example, the ladybug secretes a bitter orange fluid from out of her legs to deter the praying mantis. `The praying mantis gets a drop of it in his mouth and is so shocked by the awful taste that he drops his prey immediately.` At last, as winter approaches, the ladybug, finds a hole in a log, a safe place to wait out the winter. The author concludes with more facts about ladybugs. An appealing introduction to a familiar and useful insect made especially suitable for reading aloud because of the accessible text and bright, dramatic illustrations. (Nonfiction 59)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8050-6058-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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