A whimsically illustrated and informative guide that will turn readers into bee experts.
Chubak’s meticulously organized guide covers everything readers could want to know about the intricate world of honeybees.
The author briskly but thoroughly walks readers through the world of honeybees, beginning with their life stages, kingdom classification, and the functions of various hormone glands. All vocabulary words—such as entomologists and haploid—are in bold, and each section is short in length and includes bite-sized information nuggets: “When multiple queen sisters are raised in a hive, they can fight for sole dominance of the colony. This royal battle is announced by the queens with an audible sound called piping, tooting, or bugling. It may sound like a chirp from the outside of the hive. After the battle, only one queen will remain in the hive and be accepted by the colony.” The book is broken down into six broad categories: “The Honey Bee Colony,” “The World of the Queen Bee,” “The Amazing Worker Bee: Activity in the Brood Nest Nursery,” “Worker Bees’ Jobs Inside the Hive but Outside of the Brood Nest,” “Field Bees,” and “Drone: The Mating Specialist.” Each section then focuses on the individual bees that inhabit that category. Evans’ plentiful illustrations feature colorful foregrounds with black-and-white backgrounds for tongue-in-cheek interpretations of the different bee types, including a worker bee clocking in to a factory and a drone bee holding a college pennant in front of a frat house. The book’s last section, “Activities & Famous Bees,” puzzlingly does not include any activities, and readers may find themselves wishing for a condensed index of vocabulary words. The prose is rather clipped, which often makes understanding the book’s truly fascinating information easier. (Drone bees only have one set of chromosomes! Bees use plant resin for medicinal purposes!) The sheer amount of information the book includes is staggering, while Chubak’s straightforward tone will likely appeal to kids and adults alike.
A whimsically illustrated and informative guide that will turn readers into bee experts.Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781038300379
Page Count: 120
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 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.
