In this sequel to her middle-school-age novel Isabel of the Whales (2006), Velmans flips the script and features a whale that turns into a boy.
Opening three years after the start of Isabel of the Whales, this new installment features Isabel having trouble adjusting to life back on land after her adventure as a humpback whale. School, boyfriends and family life don’t interest her as they might another young teen, and she longs to return to the ocean. Then she gets a shock when a beached whale near her home turns out to be her friend Jessaloup. In order to communicate with her, he becomes human. Isabel teaches Jessaloup how to walk, talk and eat like a human, then she learns that he has come to warn her of a devastating tsunami headed toward her home on Cape Cod. Isabel has trouble getting the police to take her warnings seriously, but finally convinces her science teacher, who takes her and Jessaloup to an oceanographic institute to get advice. A young scientist studying whale songs believes Isabel and helps spread the word and start the evacuation. But Isabel’s biggest surprise is yet to come, as her parents reveal the identity they’ve kept hidden from her. That secret identity, while not completely unexpected, provides a satisfying twist and reinforces a theme that runs through the story—be true to one’s self. In many ways, the plot thread involving Isabel’s family makes for a more compelling story than the tsunami threat, though Isabel and Jessaloup's race against time and the book's spirit of adventure keep the pages turning. A fantasy that will satisfy fans of Velmans’ previous work as well as new readers, budding scientists in particular.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983550594
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Van Horton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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