A sound examination of a surprisingly loud undersea world.
Listen to an underwater cacophony.
With this playful account of the sounds revealed by recent hydrophone research, the author of When a Tree Falls (2025) leaves the forest to visit the ocean, inviting younger audiences to eavesdrop on fish. Pendreigh’s rhyming couplets never falter; from time to time, she repeats the refrain “It’s NOISY down below.” Starting with whale and dolphin sounds, she quickly dives into less familiar territory, describing the noises made by a remarkable variety of marine life, including shellfish. She speculates on what they might be saying (“MY LUNCH!” “SHARK?”) and explains that underwater, “sound travels faster, and farther…, / quicker than smell and deeper than light.” She reveals how these creatures create sound and uses frequent onomatopoeia (“Pearlfish THRUM. / Angelfish CHIRP”). Melrose’s digital illustrations include recognizable depictions of the fish, from clownfish to herring, as well as their sounds, lettered neatly nearby. Careful observers will notice a snapping shrimp crackling and popping on nearly every spread. This creature provides the climax; its astonishingly loud sound is accompanied by “blast balls that STUN / ZAP-FLASH-BUBBLES. Hot as the SUN!” The repetition of sound words makes this a pleasure to use with fledgling readers. The spreads will show well to a small group, and the backmatter adds useful information on hydrophone research, how fish hear, and snapping shrimp and the other animals mentioned.
A sound examination of a surprisingly loud undersea world. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781464218965
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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