Masterful.
“Almost perfect predators” are made less fearsome through this pictorial introduction.
Experts at the visual display of information return with this splendid album that presents 42 shark species, described and portrayed in torn- and cut-paper collage illustrations. Jenkins and Page have organized their information thoughtfully, spread by spread. They begin with species variety (headed with the evocative collective noun “a shiver of sharks”) and end with a thought-provoking pairing: shark attacks and sharks in danger (mostly from humans). Along the way they cover general topics—size, child-bearing, diet, and feeding habits—before describing particular species. There is the great white shark, of course, and the gigantic whale shark, hammerheads and other sharks with odd shapes, sharks that glow in the dark, sharks that live in surprising places, shark ancestors, and record holders. Though two-dimensional, the artist’s sharks are surprisingly realistic in their features, coloration, and shading. All images are carefully labeled and shown with a human silhouette for scale. Set on a plain background, each is glossed with an accompanying informational paragraph printed in a friendly, faux handwritten typeface. Some spreads include range maps. There’s wonderful variety in these images. The basking shark, an enormous filter feeder, is shown with its giant mouth open wide. A biofluorescent chain catshark glows green on a black page. The multidimensional pattern of pointed shapes on the endpapers is also a nice touch. Best of all, page numbers make the index (itself information-packed) truly useful. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Masterful. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-10)Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-328-56949-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Erupt into applause for this picture book of the first magma-tude.
A deceptively simple, visually appealing, comprehensive explanation of volcanoes.
Gibbons packs an impressive number of facts into this browsable nonfiction picture book. The text begins with the awe of a volcanic eruption: “The ground begins to rumble…ash, hot lava and rock, and gases shoot up into the air.” Diagrams of the Earth’s structural layers—inner and outer core, mantle, and crust—undergird a discussion about why volcanoes occur. Simple maps of the Earth’s seven major tectonic plates show where volcanoes are likeliest to develop. Other spreads with bright, clearly labeled illustrations cover intriguing subtopics: four types of volcanoes and how they erupt; underwater volcanoes; well-known volcanoes and historic volcanic eruptions around the world; how to be safe in the vicinity of a volcano; and the work of scientists studying volcanoes and helping to predict eruptions. A page of eight facts about volcanoes wraps things up. The straightforward, concise prose will be easy for young readers to follow. As always, Gibbons manages to present a great deal of information in a compact form.
Erupt into applause for this picture book of the first magma-tude. (Nonfiction picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4569-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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
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