Whimsical and wonderful.
Will Dr. Morley ever see the elusive Arctic jellyfish she has pursued for months?
In this imagined exploration, Dr. Morley, a determined scientist, leads her crew through icy Arctic waters. They see narwhals, beluga whales, and orca, but where is the giant jellyfish? Savage’s ink and watercolor illustrations reveal the secret: The jellyfish has been following them all along. These playful images are the heart of this engaging story. For the most part, the ocean surface runs across the middle of the page so readers can see underwater as well as above. There are cutaway views of the ship showing a diverse crew of sailors and scientists (in matching white-and-red sweaters, heavy red outer clothing, or wetsuits; light-skinned Dr. Morley usually wears green) at work. The details repay careful attention. Savage’s precise artwork depicts the crew’s preparations, the clothing and equipment, and all the parts of the ship from the bridge and pilot to the compartments below, including an engine room, galley, bunks, and bathrooms. The people are always tiny, dwarfed by the animals. The crew encounters storms, the northern lights, giant shelves of ice, and, once, a polar bear. Most of these images are double-page spreads, varied occasionally by pages of panels that moderate the pace of the storytelling. This voyage may be fictional, but the frustrations—and joys—of scientific exploration are real indeed. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Whimsical and wonderful. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2851-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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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