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OUR NEST

Name: OUR NEST
Author: Reeve Lindbergh
ISBN: 0-7636-1286-3

by Reeve Lindbergh & illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2004

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Luminous undertones in McElmurry’s neatly brushed landscapes and cozy close-ups reflect and enhance the lyricism of Lindbergh’s rhyme. Cataloguing nests, the poet begins with a reader or listener snuggled in bed and a dog nestled nearby, then moves ever outward, from a mama cat on a pile of clothes and a hen out in the barn, to the ocean nested upon our planet, which is in turn nesting in the universe, and back, step by step, to a heartfelt finish: “We’re here in the nest of creation / With the earth and the stars up above. / And you’re here, safe and warm, / In the nest of my arms, / When I wrap them around you with love.” Bedtime reads lie thick upon the ground, but for its comforting message, flowing text, warm sentiment, and jewel-like art, this comes close to such standards as Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon or Kate Banks’s And If the Moon Could Talk (1998). (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-7636-1286-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2004

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
HOMER THE LIBRARY CAT
by Reeve Lindbergh & illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf

- BOOK REVIEW
MY LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OFTEN FORGETS
by Reeve Lindbergh & illustrated by Kathryn Brown

- BOOK REVIEW
THE VISIT
by Reeve Lindbergh & illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin

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THE WATER PRINCESS

by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016

Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...

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An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.

Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.

Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
I AM WE
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

- BOOK REVIEW
ARE YOU LISTENING?
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO I AM
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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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)