While most readers won’t become cheerleaders for poison ivy, they will at least come away with a greater understanding of...
Sanchez introduces a new perspective on this potentially itch-causing plant: Poison ivy plays a vital role in providing food for forest animals throughout the year, especially at times when other food is scarce.
While Sanchez litters the text with warnings about staying away from poison ivy (“Hairy vine—a warning sign!”), the focus is mostly on the plant’s importance to mammals, birds, insects, amphibians and reptiles. Urushiol, a chemical in its sap, may give humans an itchy rash, but animals are immune to its effects, so they can safely nibble its leaves, vines and berries, collect the nectar from its flowers, hide under its leafy, moist shade, and use its rootlets to line nests. Brickman nicely shows both the diversity of the leaves of the poison ivy plant (“Like snowflakes, no two poison ivy leaves are exactly alike”) and how it changes through the seasons. An artist’s note explains how the illustrations were created; surprisingly, no materials from nature were used—only painted paper cut and shaped and glued in place. The result is surprisingly realistic, though some of the larger mammals look a bit stiff. Backmatter answers some common questions about poison ivy.
While most readers won’t become cheerleaders for poison ivy, they will at least come away with a greater understanding of its importance and an increased ability to identify it. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62091-445-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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