A treasure for browsers and bird lovers everywhere.
Yolen and her three children celebrate birds with a lavishly illustrated compendium of facts, photographs, and poetry.
This lovingly compiled collection begins with a lengthy section of articles describing birds, their anatomy, and their nests, and it ends with suggestions for attracting birds to your backyard. In between are chapters about prehistoric birds (dinosaurs), birds in history, state birds (each with a full-page photograph and two fast facts), listening to birds, looking at birds, bird migration, saving species, bird records, birds in the arts and in story, and citizen science. The authors of each text piece, song, and poem are identified in the backmatter; photo credits show that these splendid images come from around the world. There’s even a list of the scientific names of the birds in order of their appearance in the text. Dedicated to Yolen’s husband and the Stemples’ father, David Stemple, an ardent birder and bird-song recordist, this oversized volume is a treat to look at and to read. It includes a list of films to watch (“Birds are notoriously difficult to train to perform on stage or screen”), nicely retold myths and fables from around the world (with a map), two Audubon paintings, and carefully crafted poems including one about flock names. As is characteristic of National Geographic publications, the plentiful photographs are well-chosen and beautifully reproduced.
A treasure for browsers and bird lovers everywhere. (authors’ notes, acknowledgements, find out more, index) (Nonfiction. 8-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4263-3181-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
From a long-lived American legend, this rich volume is a national treasure.
Much has been written about the black women mathematicians who worked behind the scenes at NASA; now young readers can hear Katherine Johnson’s story in her own words.
Johnson begins her autobiography with her decision, at the age of 4, to start attending school with her brother so she could help him with his math. Impressed, the teacher opened a kindergarten class, but soon Katherine was skipping entire grades. Her family relocated so that she and her siblings could attend high school and college (beyond seventh grade, there was no school for “colored” youth in their hometown). Johnson graduated college at 18 with degrees in French and mathematics before going on to teach and pursue her now-famous career at NASA, yet she comes across as humble and warm, passing on to her children the refrain her father taught her as inoculation against racism: “You are no better than anyone else, but nobody else is better than you.” Johnson describes the culture and way of life in each of the places where she lived and worked, with an honest portrayal of the common racial injustices and indignities alongside the shared humanity that also existed. She artfully weaves in the heart of how African American communities have survived and advanced—through “self-help and sacrificing” for the next generation. Her writing style is comfortable and conversational, making the book feel like a visit over tea that you wish would never end.
From a long-lived American legend, this rich volume is a national treasure. (Memoir. 9-adult)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4083-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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