Inspiring examples for fledgling defenders of the environment.
Profiles of 12 young climate activists and three grassroots groups, matched to painted portraits and original poems.
Similar in concept to No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History (2020), by the same creators, but taking a worldwide perspective, these entries highlight successful initiatives undertaken by school-age children in locales from the Marshall Islands to Ukraine and the Americas. Though Greta Thunberg—flashing her magnificent scowl in Bradley’s digital pastel—is the subject of one of the early entries, the other chosen activists will be mostly unfamiliar to readers. The poems are largely identified as free verse, such as one by Traci Sorell that acrostically spells out the name of Indigenous Brazilian tree planter Artemisa Xakriabá, but include examples of less common forms, too, such as a dokugin (or single-author) renga by David Bowles praising Mexica activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, and a Vietnamese-style lục bát by Teresa Robeson commemorating the work of biodiesel-promoting “Grease Police” on Bali. The editors spread prompts for both individual and collective action throughout and add capsule biographies of the poets and descriptions of each kind of poem at the close. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Inspiring examples for fledgling defenders of the environment. (glossary) (Informational picture book/poetry. 6-12)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-62354-313-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
A variety show brimming with esoteric and practical information.
Two youngsters embark on a journey peppered with history, trivia, and skits while teaching money lessons.
Meet Mellody and John, the young stars of this currency showcase. Their very first dialogue offers a taste of the intriguing information to come, from the ancient Mayans’ use of cacao beans as payment to the origins of the piggy bank. The book offers a chronologically and geographically broad timeline of the history of money, encompassing the past 3.9 billion years (starting with meteorite crashes that scattered metals—“the very first bank deposit”) and referencing practices across five continents. Readers will find themselves eagerly sharing the facts gleaned here, including the centuries-old origins of terms and expressions still used today. Mellody and John’s fun banter crucially reflects their experiences with money, such as their families’ differing attitudes toward allowances. Both are savers as well as givers, sharing stories about giving to charity. In one especially entertaining section, a cat and a bunny converse in money-related catchphrases that are separately defined at the bottom of each page. Stevens’ watercolors are appropriately realistic and appealing, whether depicting Mellody’s pretend bank or Elizabeth II’s butler ironing a 10-pound note. Messages about money’s use as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself, ensure that readers will think about their own purposes for their savings. Mellody and John are Black.
A variety show brimming with esoteric and practical information. (index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781536224719
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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
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