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MOTHER ASPEN

Name: MOTHER ASPEN
Author: Annette LeBox
ISBN: 9781773069357

A STORY OF HOW FORESTS COOPERATE AND COMMUNICATE

by Annette LeBox ; illustrated by Crystal Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2024

Lyrical and intriguing, if heavy-handed on the personification.

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A celebration of the Wood Wide Web that connects an aspen grove with its forest community.

LeBox explains how an aspen sprouts “children” from “her” roots. The entire stand is actually one organism, which has “lively conversations” with other types of trees thanks to an underground mycelial network that consumes, stores, and shares water and sugars as conditions and needs change. Meanwhile, as depicted by Smith’s lush and lovely digitally painted woodscapes, the forest also shelters and feeds a host of wildlife from bears to butterflies. Mushrooms grow in profusion, and aspen leaves turn golden, all in their proper seasons; a longer cycle completes itself at last when the Mother Tree “takes her last breath,” falling in a storm to become a decomposing nurse log. Though the book ramps up the anthropomorphism, it’s nevertheless an enticing introduction. In her afterword, the author decries the obliteration of complex forest ecosystems by commercial lumber interests and pays tribute to the work of naturalist Suzanne Simard in discovering many of these subtle, hidden natural connections. She also supplies useful lists of print and video resources for readers drawn by the glowing art and prose to dig further into the subject.

Lyrical and intriguing, if heavy-handed on the personification. (Informational picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024

ISBN: 9781773069357

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Groundwood

Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
PEACE IS AN OFFERING
by Annette LeBox ; illustrated by Stephanie Graegin

- BOOK REVIEW
CIRCLE OF CRANES
by Annette LeBox

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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I AM GRAVITY

by Henry Herz ; illustrated by Mercè López ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2024

An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.

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An introduction to gravity.

The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.

An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)