Perceptively celebrates the Salish Sea and its natural elements, from one squid to 1,000,000 raindrops.
Counting from one to 1 million, McClure introduces children to the creatures and habitats of the Pacific Northwest’s Salish Sea.
The initial spreads, one through 10, interpolate well-known animals—five salmon, seven seals—with wonderfully unfamiliar ones. Each entry provides both the numeric symbol and the written word(s) for the number, along with a short phrase describing action, from “THREE Lumpsuckers hanging on” to “EIGHT Kelp crabs lunching in a forest.” McClure’s exquisite, intricate papercuts, accented with pastel watercolor washes, reveal anatomical details like scales, claws, and suckers and are particularly adept at capturing the flying and diving of birds. Later entries hopscotch from 20 clams, 50 surf scoters, and 100 sculpins to some really big groups: 500 dunlins, 1,000 “Years of a cedar tree sharing life,” 10,000 plankton, and “ONE MILLION Raindrops returning to the Salish Sea.” Beyond 100, McClure understandably abandons the faithfully exact depictions of quantities. For the old-growth cedar tree, her papercut interposes the tree in its natural setting with a crosscut slab, its pink-orange growth rings filling and spilling off the double spread. Embedded in McClure’s teeming compositions and airy text are an impressive knowledge and respect for the habitats fostered by the Salish Sea. However, readers will have to go elsewhere for information about the intriguing denizens and domains featured here.
Perceptively celebrates the Salish Sea and its natural elements, from one squid to 1,000,000 raindrops. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63217-336-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adults looking for an easy entry into this subject will not be disappointed.
This book presents a simplified explanation of the role the atmosphere plays in controlling climate.
The authors present a planet as a ball and its atmosphere as a blanket that envelops the ball. If the blanket is thick, the planet will be hot, as is the case for Venus. If the blanket is thin, the planet is cold, as with Mars. Planet Earth has a blanket that traps “just the right amount of heat.” The authors explain trees, animals, and oceans are part of what makes Earth’s atmosphere “just right.” “But…Uh-oh! People on Earth are changing the blanket!” The book goes on to explain how some human activities are sending “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere, thus “making the blanket heavier and thicker” and “making Earth feel unwell.” In the case of a planet feeling unwell, what would the symptoms be? Sea-level rises that lead to erosion, flooding, and island loss, along with extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, blizzards, and wildfires. Ending on a constructive note, the authors name a few of the remedies to “help our Earth before it’s too late!” By using the blanket analogy, alongside simple and clear illustrations, this otherwise complex topic becomes very accessible to young children, though caregivers will need to help with the specialized vocabulary.
Adults looking for an easy entry into this subject will not be disappointed. (Board book. 3-4)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8082-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
Caregivers eager to expose their children to fine art have better choices than this.
From “Apple” to “Zebra,” an alphabet of images drawn from museum paintings.
In an exhibition that recalls similar, if less parochial, ABCs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (My First ABC, 2009) and several other institutions, Hahn presents a Eurocentric selection of paintings or details to illustrate for each letter a common item or animal—all printed with reasonable clarity and captioned with identifying names, titles, and dates. She then proceeds to saddle each with an inane question (“What sounds do you think this cat is making?” “Where can you find ice?”) and a clumsily written couplet that unnecessarily repeats the artist’s name: “Flowers are plants that blossom and bloom. / Frédéric Bazille painted them filling up this room!” She also sometimes contradicts the visuals, claiming that the horses in a Franz Marc painting entitled “Two Horses, 1912” are ponies, apparently to populate the P page. Moreover, her “X” is an actual X-ray of a Jean-Honoré Fragonard, showing that the artist repainted his subject’s face…interesting but not quite in keeping with the familiar subjects chosen for the other letters.
Caregivers eager to expose their children to fine art have better choices than this. (Informational picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5107-4938-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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