An endearing but unfocused look at everyone’s favorite dwarf planet.
Meet Pluto, a “proud, playful, and popular non-planet.”
Today’s young readers likely grew up learning that there are only eight planets in our solar system, a fact that sets them apart from generations past. Pluto may well have been stricken from the planetary record, but in “his” own words, “Not a planet? Not a problem!” McAnulty’s chipper text seems torn between a multitude of directions. It could have been a story about identity and how it’s OK not to fit in. It could have been an exploration of the solar system, what’s in it, and how humans have studied it. It could have offered knowledge about dwarf planets and what makes them special. It somehow manages to do all and none of these things, likely limited by the young age of its intended audience. What stands out most are the facts, interspersed throughout the text and also found in the backmatter; the story itself, conversational, bubbly, and littered with misplaced dog metaphors (Pluto dubs himself both a “runt” and a “stray”), isn’t quite as engaging as it attempts to be. The highly anthropomorphized art is bright and cute, although the occasional floppy ears are somewhat disconcerting. Backmatter is highly informative, containing those juicy specialized details sure to please space-loving readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An endearing but unfocused look at everyone’s favorite dwarf planet. (author’s note, statistics on Pluto, information on what makes something a planet, sources, “Pluto or Earth or Both?”) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781250813466
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 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
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