A gentle message lovingly and artfully rendered.
Explore our planet and marvel at its breathtaking natural beauty.
Cover art sets the tone as a group of children looks out over the vast ocean as if embracing the entire world. The title page shows Earth in a starry universe with the continents visible in their familiar shapes. Subsequent views get closer as readers see part of the Northern Hemisphere followed by a view from between parted clouds of lush green land set among hills and streams with human habitation indicated by a cultivated area and a village. It is here that the narration begins by naming this place as Earth. Mountains, sun, stream, farm, river, town, bay, ocean, and shore are introduced in lovely, descriptive cumulative verses, each ending with the title phrase. The verses appear within double-page spreads, all brightly hued and lush, glowing in the sun, and featuring racially diverse children engaging with and protecting the land and water. The perspectives vary throughout, some seen in wide angle, some from high above, and some at eye level. Young readers will appreciate the natural beauty of planet Earth and understand that they can play a part in preserving it. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gentle message lovingly and artfully rendered. (information on preventing pollution, resources) (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-35136-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Erupt into applause for this picture book of the first magma-tude.
A deceptively simple, visually appealing, comprehensive explanation of volcanoes.
Gibbons packs an impressive number of facts into this browsable nonfiction picture book. The text begins with the awe of a volcanic eruption: “The ground begins to rumble…ash, hot lava and rock, and gases shoot up into the air.” Diagrams of the Earth’s structural layers—inner and outer core, mantle, and crust—undergird a discussion about why volcanoes occur. Simple maps of the Earth’s seven major tectonic plates show where volcanoes are likeliest to develop. Other spreads with bright, clearly labeled illustrations cover intriguing subtopics: four types of volcanoes and how they erupt; underwater volcanoes; well-known volcanoes and historic volcanic eruptions around the world; how to be safe in the vicinity of a volcano; and the work of scientists studying volcanoes and helping to predict eruptions. A page of eight facts about volcanoes wraps things up. The straightforward, concise prose will be easy for young readers to follow. As always, Gibbons manages to present a great deal of information in a compact form.
Erupt into applause for this picture book of the first magma-tude. (Nonfiction picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4569-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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
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