A strong, engaging work that delivers intriguing facts about monarch butterflies.
This science-focused illustrated children’s book explores the incredible life cycles of multigenerational monarch butterflies.
Monarchs are common and loved in North America, but “What makes them the celebrities of the insect world?” the narrator asks. Ending most two-page spreads on a question, the work features a narrator who guides readers through an understanding of monarch migration, the geography behind their long journeys, and the strange life cycles that allow every “third or fourth” generation of monarchs to live for months, rather than only a few weeks, of adulthood. But when habitats change, how can monarchs survive? Marta Magellan addresses many of the concerns that migrating butterflies face, such as chemicals, habitat loss, climate change, and the parasites that have affected resident monarchs. But the book ends on a hopeful note, showing young readers how to become citizen scientists and plant their own pollinator gardens. Images of monarch mimics, along with why these look-alikes share similar coloration, will help young readers identify insect specimens in their own neighborhoods. A helpful glossary explains many of the more challenging science vocabulary words in the book, and even offers further information about different types of mimicry beyond the main text. Some word choices, especially in the end pages, may stymie beginning readers, for example in the discussion of systemic pesticides. While the book has a hefty amount of text, it’s skillfully presented in the pages, with plenty of eye-catching images to move the story along. The bright, clear photographs (by Gersing, Lambert, Mazur, and Endrizzi) are perfectly accompanied by Mauro Magellan’s illustrations, which blend photorealism with design elements. A detailed map shows the butterflies’ migration paths, a feature that will captivate adult and young readers alike. But the final image may haunt readers with its depiction of fallen butterflies, crumpled on a sidewalk. The Magellans, a sibling team, and their collaborators wisely follow that scene with ways young readers can help.
A strong, engaging work that delivers intriguing facts about monarch butterflies.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Eifrig Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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