Perhaps the Earth would be better off if humans were more like animals.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Ah, the idyllic life of a bear: scratching on trees, fishing in rivers, taking a snooze. But this particular bear is finding all his activities thwarted by human encroachment. Luckily, he stumbles across a girl dressed as some sort of scout, out with a group of similarly dressed children, who speaks bear and is willing to teach him the ropes of being human. But while he masters thumb wars, cooperation, and hide-and-seek, these skills fail to help him feel at home in the city, and the pair run back to the forest. The girl realizes that perhaps the bear has it backward, and she learns “the smell of a summer sky just before it rains” and other nature skills but especially the idea that the Earth is meant for sharing. Together with her scout group, they join with the bear to start working on a space for everyone to enjoy. And while each continues to be good at being their own species, they will always remain friends. Varma’s adorable cartoon illustrations highlight the ursine-girl relationship while at the same time showing humans’ lack of care for the natural world: tree stumps, garbage, loud traffic. The unnamed girl is tan-skinned with short dark hair; her friends are diverse. While backmatter might have been welcome, Kolinas gets her message across without it. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Perhaps the Earth would be better off if humans were more like animals. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781771474948
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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