An understated yet unambiguous call to action for everyone to do their part to protect the oceans.
A curious, young Black girl embraces her role as a protector of aquatic life.
McKenzie, or Mermaid Kenzie as she prefers to be called, is a bright, adventurous child with a big Afro who enjoys everything the seashore and ocean have to offer. When not at the beach, she uses her vivid imagination to re-create the serenity of the sea in her messy bedroom that she refuses to clean because “mermaids don’t clean up.” Day and night, the girl and her mother spend time at the shore building sand castles, skipping stones, collecting seashells, exploring sea caves, going on boat rides, and more. Mermaid Kenzie loves interacting with the organisms that call the beach and ocean home, including a seal she has named Cocoa. The more she explores, the more she realizes just how much pollution has affected the marine ecosystem. Her mother tells her of a time when the ocean was “an underwater zoo,” but now there are “more plastic bags than fish.” Dubbing herself Protector of the Deeps, Mermaid Kenzie breaks her own injunction against cleaning and begins picking up trash and encouraging her friends to do the same. This inspiring picture book shows the positive impact even the youngest of us can make. The text, written in African American Vernacular English, teems with evocative, often lyrical descriptions of the marine setting. The cartoony, digital illustrations use a palette dominated by the bright greens and deep blues of ocean water.
An understated yet unambiguous call to action for everyone to do their part to protect the oceans. (author’s note, bibliography) (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63592-310-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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