Upbeat conservationist verse.
With this poetry collection, Silverman and Hsu offer encouragement for those worried about the planet.
Vivid verse brings to life a variety of global efforts toward environmental stewardship and revitalization. Each piece offers a close observation of a regionally specific ecological problem and solution; a brief paragraph of text offers more information. “For the Bees” explores how the people of Oslo, Norway, created a “highway” made up of roof gardens and bee boxes to help honeybees, which face threats due to habitat loss and climate change. Another poem details how an initiative in Chicago resulted in people turning their lights off at night to help migrating birds. The result is a distilled portrayal of a world in crisis as well as an optimistic portrait of how a small handful of people, working together, can respond and avert crises. Though it’s clear that our planet faces grave danger, readers will come away feeling that positive change is within their grasp. In lesser hands, this work could have become heavy-handed, but it does what poetry does best: It captures small, meaningful moments with heart. This purposeful collection offers an entry point for deeper conversations about the human role in preservation and protection of the natural world. Hsu’s realistic yet whimsical full-color illustrations add a human touch and reflect diversity in skin tones throughout.
Upbeat conservationist verse. (how you can help, more to explore, resources for families and educators, children’s books celebrating city wildlife) (Picture book/poetry. 4-8)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780358434566
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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
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