Bee-you-tiful.
Our familiar, tiny (and, of course, impatient) hero is back to study pollination.
The harried nymphalid from Burach’s previous tales learns yet another large scientific term (“Polli-WHAT-now?”). Butterfly sees Bee sitting on a flower, covered in yellow specks, and wonders what exactly is happening. After a quick lesson, an extraordinary fact comes to light: Butterflies are pollinators, too! Feigning nonchalance, Butterfly launches an endless string of questions: “Right. Right. Pollen. What’s pollen again?” “NOW what are you doing?” “Got it. So…how many flowers do bees visit each day??” In awe at the amount of pollen Bee collects, Butterfly tries to keep up and even transform into a bee (with the help of some glue, extra pollen baskets, and an elaborate, over-the-top jet pack). Bee, however, with wise assurance, advises after each attempt, “Just be a butterfly.” Full of witty banter, the back-and-forth exchanges told through different colored speech bubbles are ideal for pairs to read aloud. The fun wordplay (the pollinator baskets come from “Flykea”; a poster in the background of one page shows an equation from “Einsting”) also adds to the delight. Combining info on the natural world with lessons on self-acceptance, this is a buzzworthy choice. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Bee-you-tiful. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781338752632
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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