A pleasant but facile introduction to the important concept of seed dispersal.
Page examines how seeds move from their parent plants to places where they can sprout and grow.
The simple prose relies on action verbs for punch, if not scientific accuracy: A seed may “hitchhike,” “catapult,” “parachute,” or even “plop”—in the poop of a berry-eating bear. Some spreads depict related actions: The large, buoyant seeds of the coconut palm and monkey-ladder vine can both drop into water and “drift” or “float” off, perhaps finding an auspicious shore for propagation. Particularly intriguing are seeds adapted in ways that encourage animals to mobilize them. Bloodroot seeds contain a morsel tasty to ants, which carry the seeds to their nest to eat and bury. The seeds of an unspecified African grass look and smell like antelope droppings, tricking dung beetles into rolling them underground. Farmers and gardeners are also acknowledged, and kids are encouraged to plant a watermelon seed “and see what happens.” Crisply delineated against white space, digital illustrations use color, texture, and form to depict striking, identifiable images that are nonetheless stylized rather than scientific. Some of Page’s choices in visual perspective may confound children curious about the sizes of seeds and animals. No geographical or biological information is provided for the plants and animals depicted—a missed opportunity to further engage young readers.
A pleasant but facile introduction to the important concept of seed dispersal. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0915-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard.
Rotner follows Hello Spring (2017) with this salute to the fall season.
Name a change seen in northern climes in fall, and Rotner likely covers it here, from plants, trees, and animals to the food we harvest: seeds are spread, the days grow shorter and cooler, the leaves change and fall (and are raked up and jumped in), some animals migrate, and many families celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. As in the previous book, the photographs (presented in a variety of sizes and layouts, all clean) are the stars here, displaying both the myriad changes of the season and a multicultural array of children enjoying the outdoors in fall. These are set against white backgrounds that make the reddish-orange print pop. The text itself uses short sentences and some solid vocabulary (though “deep sleep” is used instead of “hibernate”) to teach readers the markers of autumn, though in the quest for simplicity, Rotner sacrifices some truth. In several cases, the addition of just a few words would have made the following oversimplified statements reflect reality: “Birds grow more feathers”; “Cranberries float and turn red.” Also, Rotner includes the statement “Bees store extra honey in their hives” on a page about animals going into deep sleep, implying that honeybees hibernate, which is false.
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3869-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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