A heartfelt paean to proto-scientists and everything left in this world for them to discover.
Questions—but not answers—abound in this celebration of natural curiosity.
One can collect lots of things while on a walk, but the pale-skinned, bespectacled young hero of this tale gathers something special: questions, including everything from “How can mushrooms show up so suddenly?” to “How deep do tree roots go?” Seasons change, but the child’s mind continues to race. Why? Because, “The thing about answers is, / They’re a lot like seeds. / If you take them home and plant them, / they will grow.” There’s a poetic cadence to Alladin’s free verse, as when the protagonist discusses bright winter days when “the sun is all light and no heat.” Questions and observations are grouped into small blue boxes, separate from the main text. Though the queries aren’t answered, young readers will have a ball mulling them over. Meanwhile, Sato’s adept and meticulous cut-paper images perfectly replicate a misty day and snowy rambles in the woods. The illustrator also skillfully works mixed-media elements (for instance, replicating the downy fuzz of a chickadee) into the art. And lest adult readers fret over a child traversing the woods with only a dog for company, a pale-skinned caregiver and younger sibling are often visible, following at a distance. A note at the book’s end advises kids on what to do on “wandery-wondery walks.”
A heartfelt paean to proto-scientists and everything left in this world for them to discover. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781772783513
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender...
A polar-bear parent speaks poetically of love for a child.
A genderless adult and cub travel through the landscapes of an arctic year. Each of the softly rendered double-page paintings has a very different feel and color palette as the pair go through the seasons, walking through wintry ice and snow and green summer meadows, cavorting in the blue ocean, watching whales, and playing beside musk oxen. The rhymes of the four-line stanzas are not forced, as is the case too often in picture books of this type: “When cold, winter winds / blow the leaves far and wide, / You’ll cross the great icebergs / with me by your side.” On a dark, snowy night, the loving parent says: “But for now, cuddle close / while the stars softly shine. // I’ll always be yours, / and you’ll always be mine.” As the last illustration shows the pair curled up for sleep, young listeners will be lulled to sweet dreams by the calm tenor of the pictures and the words. While far from original, this timeless theme is always in demand, and the combination of delightful illustrations and poetry that scans well make this a good choice for early-childhood classrooms, public libraries, and one-on-one home read-alouds.
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender restrictions. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-070-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful.
Life buzzes in a community garden.
Surrounded by apartment buildings, this city garden gets plenty of human attention, but the book’s stars are the plants and insects. The opening spread shows a black child in a striped shirt sitting in a top-story window; the nearby trees and garden below reveal the beginnings of greenery that signal springtime. From that high-up view, the garden looks quiet—but it’s not. “Sleepy slugs / and garden snails / leave behind their silver trails. / Frantic teams of busy ants / scramble up the stems of plants”; and “In the earth / a single seed / sits beside a millipede. / Worms and termites / dig and toil / moving through the garden soil.” Sicuro zooms in too, showing a robin taller than a half-page; later, close-ups foreground flowers, leaves, and bugs while people (children and adults, a multiracial group) are crucial but secondary, sometimes visible only as feet. Watercolor illustrations with ink and charcoal highlights create a soft, warm, horticulturally damp environment. Scale and perspective are more stylized than literal. McCanna’s superb scansion never misses, incorporating lists of insects and plants (“Lacewings, gnats, / mosquitos, spiders, / dragonflies, and water striders / live among the cattail reeds, / lily pads, and waterweeds”) with description (“Sunlight warms the morning air. / Dewdrops shimmer / here and there”). Readers see more than gardeners do, such as rabbits stealing carrots and lettuce from garden boxes.
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1797-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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