Make room on the picnic blanket for this convivial gathering.
There are many ants in this book, of nearly as many sizes and shapes.
A grassy meadow seems to be the perfect spot for a light-skinned young picnicker to unpack—but no sooner does the child proclaim it ant-free than a tiny voice calls out from an acorn, “Wrong! There’s one!” No, “TWO!” as the acorn ant is joined by a strawberry-sized South American dinosaur ant. Eventually we meet eight more cousins from, mostly, the Americas: “Big ants. Small ants. Ants with amazing butts.” They all have “HUMONGOUS FAMILIES,” too, as a teeming spread reveals. Aside from giving them small googly eyes, Pirolli depicts each type with salient distinguishing features, and Mosco closes with geographical ranges and other basic facts about all 10. “This book has the wrong title,” the child observes (no kidding) but nonetheless winds up gleefully inviting the entire parade of pismires to join the picnic. Though barely touching the tip of the anthill information-wise, this whimsical work will draw attention to some of the most diverse and successful creatures on the planet and perhaps leave younger readers more inclined to study these ubiquitous insects than step on them.
Make room on the picnic blanket for this convivial gathering. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781774881163
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Norma Dixon’s Lowdown on Earthworms (2005) digs deeper into the subject, but this lays fertile groundwork for budding...
Beginning readers who tunnel through this upbeat first introduction will “dig” them too.
After an opening look at several kinds of worm (including the candy sort), McCloskey drills down to the nitty-gritty on earthworms. He describes how they help soil with their digging and “poop” (“EEW!”) and presents full-body inside and outside views with labeled parts. He also answers in the worms’ collective voice such questions as “Why do you come out after the rain?” and “How big is the biggest worm in the world?” that are posed by a multiethnic cast of intent young investigators in the cartoon illustrations. A persistent but frustrated bluebird’s “Yum, yum!!” and rejected invitations to lunch offer indirect references to worms as food sources, and reproductive details are likewise limited to oblique notes that worms have big families “born from cocoons.” Single scenes mingle with short sequences of panels in pictures that are drawn on brown paper bags for an appropriately earthy look.
Norma Dixon’s Lowdown on Earthworms (2005) digs deeper into the subject, but this lays fertile groundwork for budding naturalists. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-935179-80-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: TOON Books & Graphics
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
Another feather in McCloskey’s cap.
Budding naturalists who dug We Dig Worms! (2015) will, well, coo over this similarly enlightening accolade.
A curmudgeonly park visitor’s “They’re RATS with wings!” sparks spirited rejoinders from a racially diverse flock of children wearing full-body bird outfits, who swoop down to deliver a mess of pigeon facts. Along with being related to the dodo, “rock doves” fly faster than a car, mate for life, have been crossbred into all sorts of “fancies,” inspired Pablo Picasso to name his daughter “Paloma” in their honor, can be eaten (“Tastes like chicken”), and, like penguins and flamingos, create “pigeon milk” in their crops for their hatchlings. Painted on light blue art paper—“the kind,” writes McCloskey in his afterword, “used by Picasso”—expertly depicted pigeons of diverse breeds common and fancy strut their stuff, with views of the children and other wild creatures, plus occasional helpful labels, interspersed. In the chastened parkgoer’s eyes, as in those of the newly independent readers to whom this is aimed, the often maligned birds are “wonderful.” Cue a fresh set of costumed children on the final page, gearing up to set him straight on squirrels.
Another feather in McCloskey’s cap. (Graphic informational early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-935179-93-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: TOON Books & Graphics
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
