A worthy read that will encourage children to ask questions and to take steps to reduce their trash footprint.
“In the natural world, there is no waste. Zero. Zip. Zilch.”
So begins this child-friendly primer (an Australian import) on trash. Beginning with commentary on humankind’s growing waste disposal crisis as a by-product of rapid industrialization and the environmental consequences of excess garbage, Bunting then presents a series of infographics across double-page spreads. A sequence chart shows how waste is produced at almost every stage of “pretty much everything we use, eat, wear, or play with.” A second diagram categorizes various types of household waste, but electronic waste is glaringly absent. A timeline divulges simple yet startling statistics about how long it takes everything from a banana peel to a toothbrush to decompose in a landfill. A process map visualizes four places where our refuse can end up: in a landfill, at a recycling center, in the environment, or in our homes as reused items. Yet more infographics outline how readers can “help wallop waste” through reducing, reusing, recycling, and—a new addition to the familiar catchphrase—renewing. The closing spreads stress the importance of activism and volunteering. The brief text conveys a complex subject in an easy-to-grasp format and manages to offer a comprehensive set of achievable solutions. Although candid about the scope of the problem, the book’s tone is optimistic. Bunting’s illustrations, created using digitally assembled cut-paper shapes, appear against solid backgrounds that resemble colored construction paper and feature children of various races with a range of skin tones.
A worthy read that will encourage children to ask questions and to take steps to reduce their trash footprint. (author's note) (Informational picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0792-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
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 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
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