An ecological cautionary tale that perhaps errs a little too much on the side of caution
A school of alewives migrates from the ocean to an inland lake to spawn.
Led by Pesca, the river herrings head north, swimming in parallel with the Canada geese. They pass a pod of porpoises and a humpback whale before turning toward the coast. They are spotted by a boy out in a rowboat with his father, who tells his son about the old alewife fishery, now moribund due to plummeting numbers. Once in a stream, Pesca and her school evade an eagle and a heron, and they navigate a beaver dam before pulling up short where a road has been constructed over the stream; the culvert through which the stream now flows is too high for the fish to reach. Happily, the boy and his father spot them and are able to use buckets to lift the fish over the road and into the lake. Raye’s soft, bright paintings depict the journey, varying perspective to give readers a sense of scale and drama, as with an intense close-up of the eagle’s talons. Perhaps unintentionally, the story leaves readers with a real conundrum: Even the most optimistic are likely to feel that trusting in passersby with buckets to save a fishery bodes ill for its long-term survival. An author’s note provides background on both alewives and anadromous fish, but it offers only faint hope.
An ecological cautionary tale that perhaps errs a little too much on the side of caution . (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-88448-354-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
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
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
