Driven, resourceful kids could be galvanized by these stories.
Informative and inspiring accounts of ambitious world-improving projects initiated by children.
Devoting two spreads to each child, Hui describes the organizations founded by 12 young social entrepreneurs of varying ethnicities and from all over the world; one child is a wheelchair user. They tackle fast fashion, period poverty, paper waste, and single-use straws and work toward green energy, cleaner oceans, sustainable farming, disability access, and accessible health care. “Supporting women and girls through art and education,” “redistributing food destined for landfills,” and “promoting ocean education” are others’ aims. Tidbits about the impacts of harmful practices and situations are seeded across the bright, detailed illustrations, which are naïve and engaging. In the background, racially diverse, cheerful kids keep busy; several use wheelchairs, and some wear hijab. As in Old Enough To Save the Planet (2021), the projects have a positive though naturally limited impact. Ten brief hints on how to be a social entrepreneur and 10 more on being a responsible consumer provide goals perhaps more accessible to ordinary readers. A map showing the young people’s countries of origin and acknowledgment that it isn’t all on individuals to make a difference would have been welcome, but a dozen websites for further exploration are a useful addition. Younger readers might need help with vocabulary (and small print). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Driven, resourceful kids could be galvanized by these stories. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781419765995
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Magic Cat
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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