Beautifully brilliant in its simplicity.
An exploration of the spaces separating words, outer space, and everything in between.
Following a humongous or—depending on perspective—tiny ladybug, readers are led through explanations of different meanings for the word space. Typographical, physical, and chronological spaces are some of the concepts probed in the story. Although space is often visually represented in concrete images, such as the interstices between spilled, uncontained noodles or the gap between teeth, abstract concepts are also transmitted, like the disgust one might feel when there is no space separating pickles and pudding, causing flavors to combine, or the built-up excitement created by a pause, or space, between moments. Readers will be enticed to keep revisiting the book, as it turns into a seek-and-find challenge when the pages are turned. Characters, patterns, and sections of previous spreads appear multiple times from different perspectives, leading readers to continually flip back and forth to locate the original image and to piece the final image together. Masterful page breaks create anticipation to see what is coming in the next spread, the first part of a truncated sentence often begging readers to turn the page to explore its resolution. The simplicity of Nichols’ illustrations are reminiscent of Christian Robinson’s and, with a diverse cast of characters—including both characters of color and disabled characters—evoke joy and communicate movement, life, and complex concepts.
Beautifully brilliant in its simplicity. (Informational picture book. 4–7)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-80147-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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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