Complete with a wise old turtle and a motherly bunny, this is charming and accessible science for young naturalists.
Follow an inquisitive little field mouse as he leaves the safety of his nest and explores the world outside for the first time.
Realistic and with a mouse-eye-view perspective, the interactive illustrations add drama and wonder as he encounters the other animals that inhabit his meadow. They may prove to be helpful or dangerous or simply curious, and they begin to reveal the interconnected ecosystem therein. He meets a very busy bee gathering pollen and learns how that is essential to the overall food supply. He narrowly escapes becoming part of the food chain when he passes too close to a fearsome garter snake, and soon after learning that fireflies use their lights to find mates, he finds himself sitting under the moon with a new mouse friend. Recounted in rhyme and populated with anthropomorphized animals, Wallace’s tale introduces somewhat sophisticated natural science concepts and vocabulary—metamorphosis and chrysalis, for instance—in an appealing storybook format. Interactions aren’t razzle-dazzle but nicely appropriate; tapping the mouse causes him to lean forward and twitch his nose inquisitively, which can’t help but increase readers’ engagement as well. Kid-friendly explanations and additional information about habitat are provided in a separate section at the end of the story.
Complete with a wise old turtle and a motherly bunny, this is charming and accessible science for young naturalists. (iPad storybook app. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
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