Distinctive and fun.
While ostensibly giving instructions on creating a 3-D insect replica, art and text teach the rudiments of entomology.
The initial double-page spread shows a dark room cluttered with cleaning supplies, a small drafting table, and scientific paraphernalia including a full-length human skeleton. An opening door at the left sheds light on the room’s contents while also revealing the brown-skinned arm and leg of someone entering, carrying a large jar whose contents will be revealed at the next page turn. The first words, in bold, white, playful type: “Let’s build an insect. Where should we start?” The next double-page spread answers the question by mentioning that humans have heads, so “Let’s give our insect a head.” Spread by spread, questions are asked and then answered by the invisible narrator, as the pair of hands that carried the jar into the room follows directions and uses art supplies to create a colorful, attractive creature. Attention-grabbing, clever art accompanies the whimsical text as it lightly compares insect anatomy with that of humans and other animals, notes basic body parts and some differences among insects, and explains vocabulary such as ocelli and mandibles. Especially droll: music entering a cricket’s “knee ears” and an insect gasping because it needs holes in its exoskeleton rather than lungs. The conversational narration ends with a bit of a thud, though, given its lively tone throughout. Older readers will appreciate a final spread that gives further information in a straightforward manner.
Distinctive and fun. (glossary, activity) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5415-7811-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
A lyrical and educational look at the water cycle.
Through many types of weather and the different seasons, water tells readers about its many forms.
“Sometimes I’m the rain cloud / and sometimes I’m the rain.” Water can make rainbows and can appear to be different colors. Water is a waterfall, a wave, an ocean swell, a frozen pond, the snow on your nose, a cloud, frost, a comet, a part of you. Throughout, Paterson’s rhyming verses evoke images of their own: “Soon the summer sun is back / and warms me with its rays. / I rise in rumbling thunderheads / like castles in the haze,” though at times word order seems to have been chosen for rhyme rather than meaning (“In fall I sink into a fog / and blanket chilly fields, / with pumpkins touched by morning frost / the harvest season yields”). Backmatter includes a diagram of the water cycle that introduces and describes each step with solid vocabulary, including “Collection” as a step in the process; “The Science Behind the Poetry,” which unpacks some of the poetic language and phrases; some water activities and explorations; conservation tips; and a list of other books from the publisher about water. Paterson’s full- and double-page–spread illustrations are just as magical as his verse, showing water in its many forms from afar and close up. Few people appear on his pages, but the vast majority of those are people of color.
A lyrical and educational look at the water cycle. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58469-615-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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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