This arresting long-distance tale of animal devotion will captivate readers, especially bird lovers.
Munro draws from actual events for this story of Katerina and Luka, a monogamous stork couple whose bond endures even the harshest setback.
During the birds’ southward migration, Katerina is shot down over a village. A farmer and a little girl rescue her, bring her home, and nurse her back to health. Her mate remains nearby, afraid to approach, but eventually comes to her. Katerina, unable to fly, urges Luka to leave before winter. He returns late the next spring. They have three chicks together, and before Luka leaves again, he promises to return early next spring with their children, “when the magnolias bloom.” The real story, recounted in the author’s note, is somewhat different but still focuses on the couple’s fidelity. Munro explains that a bird named Malena was shot while traveling from Croatia to South Africa, 8,000 miles away; a villager cared for her and built her a nest on the roof of his house. A male stork, Klepetan, noticed Malena, and the two formed a relationship. Klepetan would migrate but return to her each spring, year after year. Livestreamed video kept the world apprised of their activities. Narrated by Katerina, the story is both immediate and tender, ideal for individual and group sharing. The large white birds with orange beaks swoop gracefully across green fields in attractive naïve-style illustrations rendered in chalk pastel, colored pencil, and digital pencil.
This arresting long-distance tale of animal devotion will captivate readers, especially bird lovers. (information on the other birds mentioned in the story) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781662651212
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Minerva/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children.
Social-equity themes are presented to children in ABC format.
Terms related to intersectional inequality, such as “class,” “gender,” “privilege,” “oppression,” “race,” and “sex,” as well as other topics important to social justice such as “feminism,” “human being,” “immigration,” “justice,” “kindness,” “multicultural,” “transgender,” “understanding,” and “value” are named and explained. There are 26 in all, one for each letter of the alphabet. Colorful two-page spreads with kid-friendly illustrations present each term. First the term is described: “Belief is when you are confident something exists even if you can’t see it. Lots of different beliefs fill the world, and no single belief is right for everyone.” On the facing page it concludes: “B is for BELIEF / Everyone has different beliefs.” It is hard to see who the intended audience for this little board book is. Babies and toddlers are busy learning the names for their body parts, familiar objects around them, and perhaps some basic feelings like happy, hungry, and sad; slightly older preschoolers will probably be bewildered by explanations such as: “A value is an expression of how to live a belief. A value can serve as a guide for how you behave around other human beings. / V is for VALUE / Live your beliefs out loud.”
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children. (Board book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-742-8
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
A simple but effective look at a keystone species.
Sea otters are the key to healthy kelp forests on the Pacific coast of North America.
There have been several recent titles for older readers about the critical role sea otters play in the coastal Pacific ecosystem. This grand, green version presents it to even younger readers and listeners, using a two-level text and vivid illustrations. Biologist Buhrman-Deever opens as if she were telling a fairy tale: “On the Pacific coast of North America, where the ocean meets the shore, there are forests that have no trees.” The treelike forms are kelp, home to numerous creatures. Two spreads show this lush underwater jungle before its king, the sea otter, is introduced. A delicate balance allows this system to flourish, but there was a time that hunting upset this balance. The writer is careful to blame not the Indigenous peoples who had always hunted the area, but “new people.” In smaller print she explains that Russian explorations spurred the development of an international fur trade. Trueman paints the scene, concentrating on an otter family threatened by formidable harpoons from an abstractly rendered person in a small boat, with a sailing ship in the distance. “People do not always understand at first the changes they cause when they take too much.” Sea urchins take over; a page turn reveals a barren landscape. Happily, the story ends well when hunting stops and the otters return…and with them, the kelp forests.
A simple but effective look at a keystone species. (further information, select bibliography, additional resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8934-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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