Bright, childlike illustrations and appended facts about the universe can’t save this less-than-stellar ride.
A group of friends blasts off in an imaginary rocket to space in a text set to the tune of “The Green Grass Grows All Around.”
Three kids, plus a few animal companions, make a rocket ship out of a cardboard box. Suddenly, they are in space with stars and planets all around them! The text can be sung along with the accompanying CD (which also has an animation of the book that can be viewed on a computer). It follows the tune well enough (some quick blurring of syllables sometimes helps), but it is puzzling as to why it was set to music in the first place. The chorus is of course fun to belt out: “And the bright stars shine all around, all around, / And the bright stars shine all around.” But the rest is just a string of facts, squeezed to fit the song. The song descends from the Milky Way to the solar system to its eight planets to the Earth and then back out to the moon and the stars. It’s likely the book would have to be read (and the CD played or watched) multiple times before the facts sink in, so compressed are they to fit the tune: “And around that earth / orbits a moon. / Turning every month, / tugging at the tides.” Any storytime rendition would rely heavily on the excitement of the chorus alone.
Bright, childlike illustrations and appended facts about the universe can’t save this less-than-stellar ride. (Informational picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-78285-097-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender...
A polar-bear parent speaks poetically of love for a child.
A genderless adult and cub travel through the landscapes of an arctic year. Each of the softly rendered double-page paintings has a very different feel and color palette as the pair go through the seasons, walking through wintry ice and snow and green summer meadows, cavorting in the blue ocean, watching whales, and playing beside musk oxen. The rhymes of the four-line stanzas are not forced, as is the case too often in picture books of this type: “When cold, winter winds / blow the leaves far and wide, / You’ll cross the great icebergs / with me by your side.” On a dark, snowy night, the loving parent says: “But for now, cuddle close / while the stars softly shine. // I’ll always be yours, / and you’ll always be mine.” As the last illustration shows the pair curled up for sleep, young listeners will be lulled to sweet dreams by the calm tenor of the pictures and the words. While far from original, this timeless theme is always in demand, and the combination of delightful illustrations and poetry that scans well make this a good choice for early-childhood classrooms, public libraries, and one-on-one home read-alouds.
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender restrictions. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-070-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.
Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.
Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers. (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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