Youngsters will be sucked into this engaging, informative account of a most unusual ecosystem.
From the broken-off tip of a sargassum plant, a whole community grows in the Sargasso Sea.
This appealing title illustrates the remarkable variety of “the ocean’s floating golden rainforest,” as marine biologist and oceanographer Sylvia Earle puts it in her afterword. Set on and off the shores of Bermuda, the book depicts racially diverse beachgoers making their own whirlpool as Rosenstock describes the enormous whirling area of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Sargasso Sea, the result of “five currents [swirling] billions of gallons of water clockwise.” Next, she introduces the sargassum, an algae that reproduces by growing anew from broken-off bits. Step by step, the sargassum grows, and other living creatures—crabs, shrimp, swordfish—come. They graze on it, take shelter in it, and feed on smaller inhabitants. Gradually, the population builds up until we see humpback whales and then a happy Black-presenting human swimmer. The author makes clear how interdependent these creatures are and describes the complexity of their world. This deftly told narrative would be grand fun to read aloud. The creatures are introduced in triplet lines: “Crusty bryozoans / feathery hydroids. / Spiraled tube worms.” Rosenstock’s concise text exudes energy and makes wonderful use of alliteration: “They scavenge. Snatching and shredding.” “Water-striders speed on the surface.” Roy’s gorgeous, watercolorlike illustrations swirl with vibrant hues and would show well to a group.
Youngsters will be sucked into this engaging, informative account of a most unusual ecosystem. (map, research note, too much sargassum?, sources) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781324016076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 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
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
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