Useful, basic information delivered in an upbeat, colorful package.
Loosely organized in four sections, this compendium features poetic narration, often by the creepy-crawlies themselves, along with facts and suggestions for observing and fostering habitats.
The first three sections introduce specific critters, from millipedes and monarch butterflies to bombardier beetles and bumblebees, some 25 species in all. (Mole uses the unscientific, catch-all term bug without explanation, though in the final section he makes distinctions between insects and other species, such as gastropods and arachnids.) The author occasionally highlights specific habitats such as ponds and includes information, especially in the concluding section, on the important roles these creatures play in regulating our planet’s web of life, from decomposing rotting matter to feeding on garden pests. From a zoological class containing millions of species, Mole plucks plenty of wow-factor snippets to entertain young children. A cockroach’s strong exoskeleton can withstand 900 times its own weight—the equivalent of a 7-year-old being able to hoist two blue whales! New Zealand glow-worms lure their unsuspecting prey with luminescent snot. Leafcutter ants don’t eat their harvest; they feed it to a tasty fungus, which the ants feed on in turn. Stylistically, Mole’s unconcerned with poetic scansion, instead favoring occasional rhyme and apt metaphor. In “Grasshoppers,” the “field fizzes with chirps and clicks.” Ming’s pictures strike a nice balance between veracity and bright, stylized appeal.
Useful, basic information delivered in an upbeat, colorful package. (Informational picture book/poetry. 3-8)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781536238877
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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