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A COOL SUMMER TAIL

Name: A COOL SUMMER TAIL
Author: Carrie A. Pearson
ISBN: 978-1-62855-205-8

by Carrie A. Pearson ; illustrated by Christina Wald ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2014

With its companion volume, a first introduction to the topic.

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The curious animals of A Warm Winter Tail (2011) return (in the same order), this time to ask their companions or respective parents how humans cool off.

Using the same clunky language and metric structure as its predecessor, fox kits ask their mama “Do they hang out their tongues, / like a spring that’s been sprung…?” She replies: “No panting! No puffing! / No huh, huh, huh huffing! / They sweat through their skin when it’s hot.” The similar queries from a turtle, bear cubs, honeybees, a butterfly and other creatures receive like answers. At the end, a lad at the edge of a pool asks the complementary question about animals, and his mother’s general answer serves as a summary of what’s come before: “Their bodies know how to stay cool.” Wald tucks line-drawn vignettes of human figures sporting wings, a shell and other fanciful features into her otherwise realistic, staid painted illustrations. Budding naturalists will come away with a sense of the variety of ways wild animals living in temperate climates stay cool (human strategies, aside from sweating and swimming, aren’t covered). They will find further detail and activities related to seasonal adaptations both at the end and on the publisher’s website.

With its companion volume, a first introduction to the topic. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 1, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-62855-205-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sylvan Dell

Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
REAL PRINCESSES CHANGE THE WORLD
by Carrie A. Pearson ; illustrated by Dung Ho

- BOOK REVIEW
STRETCH TO THE SUN
by Carrie A. Pearson ; illustrated by Susan Swan

- BOOK REVIEW
A WARM WINTER TAIL
by Carrie A. Pearson & illustrated by Christina Wald

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)