An attractive and engaging chapter book with a canine hero.
A dog visits Svalbard and makes friends with a polar bear.
In this fifth installment of an early reader series, small canine Lindie Lou gets to tag along with her White owner, Bryan, on a research trip. Bryan and his colleagues travel to Svalbard to study the aurora borealis. When Lindie Lou arrives in the Norwegian archipelago, she discovers that her sister, Ruby, who belongs to another scientist, is also there. While the humans focus on their research, Lindie Lou and Ruby are left to their own devices. In the course of exploring the hotel, they meet a young polar bear named Nanook. Nanook gradually convinces the dogs that he means them no harm—in part, by showing them that he is friends with other potential prey, like a reindeer named Modig—and takes them to a nearby ice cave. They see the Northern Lights on many occasions, and relish their time in the Arctic. On one visit to the ice cave, Lindie Lou gets trapped there without her friends. But by barking to draw attention, she is able to get the other animals to rescue her, leaving the humans astounded when a polar bear and a reindeer appear outside the hotel with Lindie Lou riding on Nanook’s back. Bender’s story is upbeat and enjoyable, and although it has clearly didactic elements—including science, geography, and social and emotional learning—the lessons rarely take center stage. Colorful illustrations by Willows appear throughout the book, complementing the text, which is itself part of the work’s visual appeal. Many words appear in different colors, fonts, and orientations, often related to their meanings (lake, for instance, is displayed in a watery blue while smiledis curved). A few of the font choices, particularly the one used for speed-related words, can be difficult to decipher at first glance, but on the whole, the book is well designed for beginning readers. The blend of plot and information makes the volume both educational and entertaining for children.
An attractive and engaging chapter book with a canine hero.Pub Date: April 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-943493-35-7
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Pina Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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