An attractive entree to a vital subject for the youngest citizens.
Earth’s beauty and fragility provide the impetus for activism in this introduction to climate change.
In the opening and concluding compositions, Bell’s gouache and digital full-bleed spreads employ a circular motif to frame and represent the book’s subject. “One person. / Small, quiet, / insignificant” appears on the landscape, a brown-skinned child wearing shorts and a green, flowing scarf. Observant readers will follow this character throughout the narrative. As the population grows, the planet changes; readers see traffic congestion, deforestation, cattle farms, and air pollution. The impact on this gorgeous world is shown as a polar bear and its young glide by on separate ice floes, floods and wildfires arrive with changing seasons, and parched farmland yields dried-up crops. Challenging concepts are conveyed simply: Greenhouse gases are shown stifling the globe like a “too-warm blanket.” Soontornvat repeats “when one person, / and one person, / and one person / become many” to first show the negative effects on the planet and then the possibilities when more people use solar panels, install wind turbines, and plant gardens. By the time the protagonist joins marchers in Washington, D.C., diverse throngs fill the pages. Their signs and subsequent letters to a city council, a senator, and a grandmother (“I went to my very first climate march yesterday”) suggest concrete ways for children to make a difference. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An attractive entree to a vital subject for the youngest citizens. (author’s note, sources) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-62861-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard.
Rotner follows Hello Spring (2017) with this salute to the fall season.
Name a change seen in northern climes in fall, and Rotner likely covers it here, from plants, trees, and animals to the food we harvest: seeds are spread, the days grow shorter and cooler, the leaves change and fall (and are raked up and jumped in), some animals migrate, and many families celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. As in the previous book, the photographs (presented in a variety of sizes and layouts, all clean) are the stars here, displaying both the myriad changes of the season and a multicultural array of children enjoying the outdoors in fall. These are set against white backgrounds that make the reddish-orange print pop. The text itself uses short sentences and some solid vocabulary (though “deep sleep” is used instead of “hibernate”) to teach readers the markers of autumn, though in the quest for simplicity, Rotner sacrifices some truth. In several cases, the addition of just a few words would have made the following oversimplified statements reflect reality: “Birds grow more feathers”; “Cranberries float and turn red.” Also, Rotner includes the statement “Bees store extra honey in their hives” on a page about animals going into deep sleep, implying that honeybees hibernate, which is false.
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3869-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
An informative and accessible child’s-eye view of STEM careers.
Aspiring young scientists, take heed!
Traveling on a ship to the North Pole would seem an adventure in itself, but the young, unnamed narrator, whose mother heads up a team of marine biologists, also gets to meet eight other scientists involved in other specialties. On almost every page of this early reader, we encounter someone engaged in different fieldwork: a hydrologist, a microbiologist, a geologist, a seismologist, a climate scientist, a meteorologist, a zoologist, and an astronomer. As the narrator thinks about careers in science, more specialty roles—botanist, epidemiologist, and physicist—are added to the list. The work of these scientists is clearly and simply explained. (Appended is a short list with descriptions of 10 specialties.) The unfussy illustrations are washed in glowing colors, with many shades of blue; when snow forms the background, the scientists’ bright jackets pop. The ship itself is a fire-engine red. Beginners might need help reading or pronouncing some of the researchers’ special fields, but overall this is an engaging introduction to a wide and important area of work. The scientists include men and women and are racially diverse. The narrator and Mom are light-skinned; the child uses crutches.
An informative and accessible child’s-eye view of STEM careers. (Early reader/nonfiction. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780062989659
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
© 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
