bookshelf

THE SUNSET SWITCH

Name: THE SUNSET SWITCH
Author: Kathleen V. Kudlinski
ISBN: 1-55971-916-8

by Kathleen V. Kudlinski & illustrated by Lindy Burnett ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2005

bookshelf

Diurnal animals and their nocturnal counterparts exchange places as the sun goes down in this murmurous essay in natural history. Kudlinski links each pair with its common food: “Good night, Goshawk. / Your daytime turn is over. / You searched the meadows for mice all day. / Fluff your fine feathers, and sleep. / Rise and shine, Screech Owl. / The moon is drifting up in the tree. / Flap your silent wings and go about your mouse search.” Burnett follows the author’s lead in shadowy paintings, placing each predator within a semicircular frame, and filling the margins beyond with the flora or fauna that occupy the food chain’s next step down. Despite a too-sudden transition from dusk to dawn at the end, this sleepy-time read is as informative as it is somniferous for young listeners. A good pairing with Deborah Lee Rose’s One Nighttime Sea: An Ocean Counting Rhyme (2003), illustrated by Steve Jenkins, or its alphabetic predecessor. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-8)

Pub Date: May 1, 2005

ISBN: 1-55971-916-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: NorthWord

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
BOY, WERE WE WRONG ABOUT THE HUMAN BODY!
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski ; illustrated by Debbie Tilley

- BOOK REVIEW
BOY, WERE WE WRONG ABOUT THE WEATHER!
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski ; illustrated by Sebastià Serra

- BOOK REVIEW
BOY, WERE WE WRONG ABOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM!
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski & illustrated by John Rocco

bookshelf

BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

bookshelf

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

bookshelf

THE WATER PRINCESS

by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016

Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...

bookshelf

An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.

Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.

Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)