Dive in!
Explore the ecosystem of the Great African Seaforest.
Foster and Frylinck, founders of the Sea Change Project and part of the team that produced the Netflix film My Octopus Teacher, use some of their amazing underwater photographs to introduce a kelp forest ecosystem located off the coast of South Africa, a rich, biodiverse ocean world. In a gentle, leisurely tone, they invite readers to “dive into the clear, cold water…relax and explore.” The relatively simple text sits directly on the striking images. The first two spreads show the ocean from above, flying over the South African coast and then closing in above a swimmer. Under the water is an abundance of “curious creatures,” colorful fish, a seal pup, a tiny rockfish, and an octopus hiding behind shells and stones. Spread by spread, we meet more creatures until, finally, we see departing dolphins. The photographs are colorful and unusual, from distant views to astonishing close-ups; a look at a pyjama shark’s eye is especially compelling. The five final pages feature smaller versions of the images found within the book, with further identification and information. This is a delight on its own but would also pair well with Susannah Burhman-Deever’s If You Take Away the Otter (2020), illustrated by Matthew Trueman, or Nicholas Read’s The Seal Garden (2018), with photographs by Ian McAllister, both set in the kelp forests off North America’s West Coast. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Dive in! (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-67786-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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