Far too hard a sell for the intended audience.
Busy, colorful cartoons accompany text meant to encourage environmental activism in children.
The title page shows a Quentin Blake–ish, orange-and-black–striped cat in the upper corner. The cat’s speech bubble reads, “Can you find ME every time you turn a page?” The device may help retain the attention of those who begin to flag from too much information—or help more anxious children tune out the most devastating facts. Each double-page spread has a title that organizes a nonlinear movement of topics that range among praising the Earth, proclaiming its demise and saving it. The cartoons sometimes grate inappropriately against the British, prosaic, didactic text, as when sad dogs with bursting bladders and pastel dinosaurs “queue” near the words, “If we lose too many trees…humans could end up extinct—like the dinosaurs!” Then there’s the cartoon about species endangerment: “How will Santa get to all the homes without reindeer?” The art shows much cultural and ability diversity, including an uncomfortable moment between a child in a wheelchair and a “green” family asking, “Do we really need LIFTS?” In addition to providing expected conservation prompts, the text encourages children to ask questions and to be inventive. Besides imploring kids to fight climate change, the text admits at one point, “It’s hard because usually the grown-ups make these decisions….”
Far too hard a sell for the intended audience. (glossary, websites) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-84780-445-7
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.
Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.
Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers. (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
Sweet but misleading.
A plucky child becomes a space traveler.
Arceneaux was the first pediatric cancer survivor and the first with a prosthetic body part to become an astronaut, part of the first all-civilian space mission in 2021. The author, who in 2022 published the adult memoir Wild Ride and its 2023 adaptation for middle-grade readers, here shares her story with an even younger audience. Told in the third person, the narrative emphasizes the bravery she summoned as she coped with a cancer that left her with a prosthetic leg bone and knee (hinted at with an incision line in one illustration) and went on to become a space traveler. Curiously, Hayley and her astronaut colleagues are portrayed as children. They play with a “stuffed toy alien,” and in an imagined episode, Hayley ventures outside the spacecraft to perform a repair. Accompanied by softly hued illustrations with character designs that recall Precious Moments figurines, the narrative emphasizes familiar details of space travel that will appeal to children; both their bodies and their food float in zero gravity. The mission splashes down safely, and Hayley rushes to hug her mom. Though Arceneaux was the youngest astronaut to have orbited the Earth, she was an adult when she did so. The odd choice to depict her as a child reduces her compelling story to a fantasy. Arceneaux is white; other characters are diverse.
Sweet but misleading. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593443903
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Convergent
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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