A low-key but heartfelt call to appreciate the Earth’s unspoiled places.
An album of natural habitats currently being threatened by human activity.
For each of 13 select environments, including “Arctic,” “Deep sea,” “Moorland,” and “The Outback,” the Danish illustrators create a broad landscape view with plenty of native flora and fauna either openly visible or peering from partial concealment. Matte colors and flat planes make for striking compositions; the lack of modeling and depth serve to grant flora and fauna equal weight in readers’ eyes. With the names of most (not all, oddly) of the wildlife present printed in italics to create links with the art, McAllister captures the character of each setting in measured free verse: In a “Rainforest,” for instance, “Lush leaves searching for a glimmer in the gloom” are the “Haunt of mighty gorilla, poisonous frog, / And slithering python,” while on the “Prairie,” “nature plays the drama queen— / Swift in anger to curse with drought, / Blast a scouring wind, / Spin a fury of tornadoes.” The author saves her message for a closing section, in which she notes how each habitat is shrinking due to human use, pollution, or climate change. She then closes by urging readers to conserve energy, recycle, and generally care for the planet. “Explore it, protect it, love it. / Our Earth is a wonderful wild world.”
A low-key but heartfelt call to appreciate the Earth’s unspoiled places. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-84780-966-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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