A lighthearted approach to a sobering truth.
Ubiquitous use of plastics has produced oceans of plastic soup left for a new generation to clean up.
Rhyming couplets use an extended cooking metaphor to introduce the problem of plastic pollution before calling on “new chefs” to follow the recipe for solving it. The playful tone of the text and illustrations belie the sad facts they convey. Pincus points out that close examination of ocean water reveals “a confetti-like brew” of tiny plastic specks. Plastic trash ends up in the ocean and is “puréed” by ocean currents, ending up concentrated in gyres. Her soup metaphor works well. This unhealthy brew is then eaten by sea creatures, large and small. Humans who eat fish are also eating plastic bits. She suggests readers call on plastics producers to stop and that they change their personal habits, as well. Semple’s animation-style illustrations feature a diverse group of children throughout. Cartoon seascapes show plastic at every depth as well as creatures who eat it. A world map with continents and oceans shows the locations of major gyres. A final spread of backmatter offers more detailed information at a higher reading level than the primary text. Altogether, this is an engaging, informative package aimed at an audience who will, alas, probably be familiar with the problem of ocean degradation but not powerful enough to do much about it. Fortunately, the writer’s suggestions are doable.
A lighthearted approach to a sobering truth. (author's note) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: March 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5341-1118-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 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
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
An introduction to gravity.
The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668936849
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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