A winning combination of animal facts and outstanding nature photography.
Photographs of wild animal babies—sometimes alone and sometimes with family members—are accompanied by simple text about their mobility.
From the cover’s elephants and the leaping lemurs on the title page on through the endpapers (where the photographer introduces herself), the richness of the color photographs compels readers to keep reading and gazing. The first double-page spread, which shows a newborn zebra—coat still damp and ragged but already upright—explains that some baby animals come into the world ready to move, while others need help at first. “Let’s follow these baby animals and see how they get around!” Each photograph is accompanied by facts about a different animal’s mobility as a baby, including a wonderful double-page spread that shows a mother bear giving a piggyback ride to three cubs, noting that baby bears can be afraid of water. And who knew that when sloths make their weekly descent from trees, it’s primarily “to poop!” Although simple, the text effortlessly introduces vocabulary through context—words such as “foal,” “predators,” and “pod” (of whales). Phrases with exclamation marks and audience-conscious remarks such as “Quick, quick, little piggies!” and “See you later, orcas!” keep the age level to preschool and primary grades. Kudos to the author for balancing the baby animals’ sexes when she uses pronouns.
A winning combination of animal facts and outstanding nature photography. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77147-299-9
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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