DAYTIME NIGHTTIME, ALL THROUGH THE YEAR

Name: DAYTIME NIGHTTIME, ALL THROUGH THE YEAR
Author: Diane Lang
ISBN: 978-1-58469-607-0

by Diane Lang ; illustrated by Andrea Gabriel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2017

A presentation of animal activities for primary grade readers and listeners that is brought low by sadly pedestrian verse.

bookshelf

Day and night and throughout the year, animals are busy and active.

This daytime/nighttime contrast offers a selection of interesting facts. Each double-page spread is titled with a month of the year. Daytime on the left is followed by nighttime on the right. Each page uses the same format, varying only with the placement of the text. Rhyming couplets printed as abcb quatrains are set directly on paintings showing animals engaged in customary behaviors in their native habitats. Straining to fit into the verse form, the text can be awkward and the beat can stumble. “Squirrels gather acorns / They bury for later. / At this time of year / No purpose seems greater.” Readers-aloud will struggle to keep from falling into a singsong inflection. But they will appreciate the range of natural places shown and the wide variety of animals accurately portrayed—from bald eagles and coyotes through lizards, slugs and snails, to rattlesnakes and cougars. While some species are specific to a region, such as the desert tortoises, most can be found across the United States. As in the publisher’s other books, this includes helpful backmatter: a quiz to reinforce the learning, more about each species, and suggestions for follow-up activities called “Teachable Moments.”

A presentation of animal activities for primary grade readers and listeners that is brought low by sadly pedestrian verse. (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-58469-607-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Dawn Publications

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LONG AND SHORT TAIL OF COLO AND RUFF
by Diane Lang ; illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein

- BOOK REVIEW
FUR, FEATHER, FIN
by Diane Lang ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis

- BOOK REVIEW
VULTURE VERSES
by Diane Lang & illustrated by Laura Gallegos

bookshelf

WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?

From the What if You Had . . .? series

by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Howard McWilliam ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2024

Another playful imagination-stretcher.

bookshelf

Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.

As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.

Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: May 7, 2024

ISBN: 9781339049052

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT NARWHAL RESCUE
by Sandra Markle

- BOOK REVIEW
CALL THE BEE DOCTOR!
by Sandra Markle

- BOOK REVIEW
COULD YOU EVER DINE WITH DINOSAURS!?
by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Vanessa Morales

bookshelf

BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

bookshelf

Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)