A visually appealing and scientifically informative introduction to beavers, otters, and their interaction.
An enterprising beaver establishes a home despite some neighborly interference.
When Beaver discovers a valley stream lined with aspens, alders, and pines, he begins work on his new lodge. For several weeks he cuts trees, removes branches, and weaves them across the stream to form a pond and build a lodge for himself and his new mate. Gradually, the pond attracts a diverse community of plants and animals, including Otter, who fishes in Beaver’s pond and creates a racket with his rambunctious family. While pond life quiets in winter, the otters manage to turn Beaver’s lodge into a toboggan run and repeatedly create holes in the dam that Beaver must repeatedly repair. In spring, both Beaver and Otter have new families, but the otters remain pesky. Over time, however, Beaver and Otter learn to co-exist as their environment transforms. Within this seemingly simple story of animal neighbors, the author successfully introduces facts about beavers and otters, concluding with helpful sections on how each species adapts, on beavers as engineers, and on commensal relationships. Teaching tips for reading the text aloud and prompting social-emotional learning, along with suggestions for activities and a brief bibliography of nature-awareness materials, provide a pedagogical boon. Engaging, accurate, realistic watercolor illustrations present Beaver and Otter at work and play in their natural habitats.
A visually appealing and scientifically informative introduction to beavers, otters, and their interaction. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72823-224-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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