Should get young entomologists buzzing.
Bug enthusiast Mellie helps new kid Jason feel the excitement when Science Club takes part in the titular community-science event.
Jason is dubious about spending the afternoon looking for stinging insects, and Mellie would really rather be paired with best friend Sylvie instead of Jason. But as Mellie explains the differences among the pollinating insects that they spot and marks their tally card, Jason warms to the activity and Mellie warms to Jason. Between Ms. Bombus’ gentle instruction and eager Mellie’s contributions, young listeners will learn a lot about both the Great Pollinator Count and many of the plants and insects that make up a healthy North American pollinator ecosystem. Coleman’s bright illustrations feature stylized but recognizable blooms; the bugs that visit them are depicted out of scale for visibility but are otherwise rendered accurately. Mellie’s descriptions include mnemonics: A carpenter bee has a “shiny hiney,” and wasps and hornets have “skinny-mini” waists. While the story’s focus is educational, Richmond takes care to develop narrator Mellie’s character fully; the youngster is a know-it-all with depth. Mellie has parchment-colored skin and bushy blond hair, Jason has light-brown skin and curly brown hair, and Sylvie presents East Asian. Ms. Bombus has dark-brown skin and dark hair, and the Science Club members are racially diverse. Backmatter offers more information on pollination and pollinators.
Should get young entomologists buzzing. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781682636084
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Margaret Quinlin Books/Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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