A bright and informative, if anthropomorphic, primer.
An introduction to the fun world of fungi.
“Mushrooms always wear their thinking caps,” George begins preciously before going on to explain how they “know” how to grow underground, spread spores through the air, celebrate their many shapes and colors, and, as “tree-helpers” and recyclers, play active roles in nearly every ecosystem, even urban ones. Though the opening isn’t the only place she lets giddiness get the best of her—she also mentions twice in consecutive sentences that mushrooms can produce “deadly toxins”—her tally of fungal features and functions breezily covers the basics, and her concluding observation that “we are just beginning to understand all that mushrooms know and do” is certainly apt. The cheery faces that Gillingham draws on nearly every one of the dozens of labeled and otherwise accurately drawn shrooms bursting up on their own or in bunches against saturated monochrome backgrounds reflect the general tone, as well as the anthropomorphism. A bulleted list of further facts (including a cogent if tardy warning about eating or touching any found specimens) is appended; a tan-skinned young child pops into view occasionally to provide some notion of relative scale.
A bright and informative, if anthropomorphic, primer. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781778400773
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greystone Kids
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ideal lead-in to more specific guides to aquarium setup and fish care.
A first introduction to our planet’s finny residents, particularly the decidedly uncommon goldfish.
Preceded by an entire piscatorial ABC that extends over six pages, two children of color lecture an audience of house pets (and readers) about such typical fishy features as scales and gills—properly noting that some fish, like certain eels, have no scales and some, like hagfish, no bony spines. The two then zero in on goldfish, explaining that they are easier to keep at home than tropical fish, originated long ago in China, can recognize the faces of people who bring them food, and with proper care live 25 years. All of this information is presented in a mix of dialogue balloons and single lines of commentary in block letters, accompanying cleanly drawn cartoon illustrations that alternate between a domestic setting and labeled portraits of various fish rendered in fine, exact detail. With easily digestible doses of biological and historical background, common-sense cautionary notes, and a buoyant tone, this is an appealing dive for newly independent readers out to enhance the household menagerie.
An ideal lead-in to more specific guides to aquarium setup and fish care. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943145-15-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: TOON Books & Graphics
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
