Calming and informative.
A dreamy journey through six oceanic habitats.
“Ocean waves gently roll in— / swish / swoosh— / lulling you to sleep.” Modeled on the creators’ The Universe and You (2021), this soothingly cadenced outing leaves “you”—depicted as a brown-skinned child in Coleman’s cozy illustrations—snoozing on a maternal lap beneath a beach umbrella. Meanwhile, beneath the waves, “billions of busy sea creatures” glide through sea grasses and kelp forests, migrate in open waters, lurk in lightless depths, dart over a coral reef, and cling to mossy rocks in a tide pool. Though not in the “billions,” the characteristic sea life in each blue- and turquoise-painted scene is as abundant as it is varied and colorful, ranging from tropical fish and sea turtles to sea stars and strange-looking deep-water denizens. The dream voyage ends back on the beach as the child wakes up and rushes off to discover what has washed up on the sands (“And you’re ready for fun / in the sparkling sun!”). In a short afterword, which includes a sampling of photos, the author offers a broader perspective on our oceans and what we can do to protect them.
Calming and informative. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781534112797
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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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