A fascinating view of interdependency.
Nature’s symbiotic relationships are outlined in a poetic text featuring some unlikely animal and plant partnerships.
As an introduction, an adult and child (the former White, the latter with olive skin and black hair) plant a garden together. “Just you and me. / Just me and you. / We’re perfect pairs! / Here’s what we do….” An explanation of the term symbiosis is then provided, which leads into the various natural collaborations presented. Interestingly, the majority of the natural partnerships are those casual readers might consider improbable on the face of it. A Nile crocodile hosts an Egyptian plover (also known as the crocodile bird) in its mouth to help clean its teeth of food scraps, which become the bird’s meal. Zebras and ostriches herd together and rely on one another’s senses to warn of danger. More-well-known and perhaps obvious duos are included, such as the bee helping the flower spread its pollen or a sloth relying on the green algae that grows on its back to camouflage itself against predators within the greenery of the trees. Each team is allotted a double-page spread and introduced with a rhyming verse: “I wear your green among the trees. / You hide me well so no one sees / a hanging sloth that moves quite slow, / as predators lurk far below.” This is followed by a detailed explanation in a smaller font: “Algae make their home on sloth fur, turning it green in the process.” The crisp, unambiguous artwork reinforces the learning and understanding of these incredible partnerships that thrive in the natural world. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A fascinating view of interdependency. (sources) (Informational picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6098-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
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)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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
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