A versatile and irresistible invitation to explore the outdoors.
Three children explore and collect things from the forest floor in this multitasking picture book.
Part story, part seek-and-find, part nonfiction nature book, this adventure begins as three friends, two White and one Black, enter the woods wearing backpacks, dog running along ahead. On the opening spread, a rhyming couplet at the top invites readers to follow a child narrator into the woods (I and we are used throughout, and both work). Two additional lines declare, “Look what I found! / A curly stick that looks like a magic wand.” An insert in the bottom-right-hand corner asks readers to also find one signpost, two butterflies, and three flowers. On the second spread, facts about the shapes of trees are placed throughout the illustration, and a full sidebar shows and labels tree shapes to find. The spreads continue to alternate between these layouts as the children make their way through the woods, finding different “treasures” along the way. At the end of their walk, they have a table full of finds, and the rear endpapers show adorable craft creations composed of objects from the woods, with a reminder to only take treasures from the ground. The book’s detailed, varied illustrations and useful information for beginners invite readers to linger over the pages and to use the book as a companion in the natural world. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.6-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 87.9% of actual size.)
A versatile and irresistible invitation to explore the outdoors. (Informational picture book. 4-10)Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1723-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
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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