Naturalist and wildlife watcher Hirschi (Dance With Me, 1995, etc.) celebrates the coming of day in a brief poetic text, with accompanying full-color photographs by Mangelsen. The team, which explored the seasons in previous collaborations: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, here describes the activities of animals in the early morning; and in a companion volume When Night Comes (ISBN: 1-56397-766-4), many of the same animals are presented as night falls. In each title the author shows the different ways similar animals adapt to their environment. For example, at daybreak some birds, like the heron and the hawk, hunt for food, while other night-hunting birds, like the owl, settle down to rest until dark. Butterflies, turtles, frogs, and other cold-blooded creatures begin to stir as the sun warms them, while warm-blooded animals, like bears and beavers, head for their dens to take a nap and avoid the heat of the day. The handsome photographs, placed on a glossy white background, show wildlife in natural settings in summer and winter. Night is especially appealing, with many photographs capturing the amber light of nightfall and impressive views of sunset turning sky and water a fiery-red orange. In a brief afterward, the author concludes with a brief afterward with advice for animal-watching. Children will enjoy this glimpse of the wild with foxes, martins, otters, owls, eagles, and bears. (Nonfiction. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-56397-767-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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