Two brothers, Richard and Cherry Kearton, were born on a farm in late-19th-century England. They spent their childhoods exploring the Yorkshire moors, “on that thin line where the wide land meets huge sky,” delighting in nature’s patterns and possibilities. They examined every nest, every web and every footprint they found. When they grew up, the boys took serious jobs but missed their moorland fun. One afternoon, while visiting the country, Cherry took a photograph of a nest. That single snapshot opened a whole new world for the Kearton brothers. They became determined nature photographers, devising elaborate disguises and “hides” to camouflage themselves into the surroundings. Using rocks, trees, even a fake ox constructed out of a real hide, they found innovative ways to photograph birds. Bond’s watercolors enliven the rolling hills, and paneled illustrations effectively pace the chronology. The story could be tempted to take a humorous turn, focusing on each madcap disguise the brothers thought up, but instead it stays true to the Keartons’ sensibilities. A thoughtful look at two important forerunners of nature photography. (sources, photographs, endnote) (Informational picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-547-07675-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2009
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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