A heaping helping of natural history, delivered with a wink.
An invitation to step into a small but bustling ecosystem.
“Fresh bison pie!” exclaims one dung beetle as it climbs onto a newly deposited pile of poop. “The perfect place to raise a family,” chortles another. “Dung for dinner!” “And dessert!” Young readers may not be so thrilled by the fecal find. But as they follow events on and under the melting brown bounty in Hevron’s close-up digital collages from one spring to the next over the course of a year, they’ll quickly be caught up in wonder. Flies swarm, meadowlarks and other hungry predators fly in for the insect banquet, pretty prairie violets and other wildflowers spring up, butterflies flutter, and prairie dogs burrow beneath (“Mmm, these roots are tangy!”). After eight months of “sunshine and showers,” the poo pile has become “a bouquet of…fragrant flowers, graceful grasses, and three thousand flies, beetles, and biters.” Winter brings a slower tempo for residents, identified in a final group portrait, and the following spring, mama bison is back…with a new little pooper in tow. Hevron blends whimsy and science for an enchanting and much-needed reminder that complex ecosystems can be found in the most unlikely of places. It’s all a grand cycle, laid out beautifully in the engaging art and recapped in an afterword that includes a tally of North American prairie habitats where viewers can watch things play out in real life.
A heaping helping of natural history, delivered with a wink. (additional reading, selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781665935029
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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
Another playful imagination-stretcher.
Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.
As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.
Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781339049052
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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