Ancient Rhymes, A Dolphin Lullaby
Denver’s gentle lullaby comes to life in Canyon?s gorgeous paintings. It tells of a baby dolphin, which, in much the same way as a human baby, learns of many dolphin ways while it’s still in its mother’s uterus. When it’s born, it leaps about, tasting the air and racing the seagulls. Denver’s hope was that this dolphin baby would teach humans the song of the dolphins and tell them how to share the earth in harmony. Canyon’s work richly paints a portrait of the dolphin’s watery world, with stippled effects that evoke the sun shining through the water and the foam on the crest of a wave. Youngsters will even gain a better understanding of dolphin birth through the illustrations-one shows a baby dolphin curled up with an umbilical cord and another, the actual live birth from a spot just underneath and behind the mother’s dorsal fin. A better-than-usual effort in the trend of song illustration.
— Kirkus Reviews (September 2004)
City Beats
Constructed from zillions of polymer clay pellets in every imaginable hue, Canyon’s illustrations create dizzying, very close-up, pigeon’s-eye city views for which Rammell’s short, similarly semi-abstract verses provide well-tuned accompaniment. Wondering what pigeons see as they “feel the city beats,” the poet veers in frequently changing cadences from concrete observations of “different shoes on different feet” to straight sound effects: “Screech! Hiss! / Pop! Pound! / Rat-a-tat-tat! / Ka-thunk-ka-thunk!” The verses float opposite ornate window frames that provide a glimpse “outside” – and also turn out to be large die-cut rectangles, so that with each turn of the page the scene bursts into full-bleed glory while the already-read lines show through. More generic in locale, but similar in visual energy to Robert Neubecker’s Wow! City! (2004), this flight will send young audiences fluttering and spinning through their own urban visions.
–Kirkus Reviews (February 15, 2006)
Earth Day Birthday
“On the first Earth Day Birthday the wide world gave to me . . . A bald eagel in a blue sky.” In cumulative verses . . . Schnetzler introduces a menagerie of familiar creatures, up to “twelve wolves a-howling,” capped by an eloquent comment on the origins and purposes of Earth Day. Wallace’s dramatic, spread-filling, close-up animal paintings . . . provide plenty of visual interest-and his wildlife often seems to be gazing expectantly out at viewers, as if asking “Well? What are you wainting for?”
–Kirkus Reviews (February 15, 2004)
How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate
This clear, detailed explanation demonstrates that we know about climate change through research by scientists and students at home and in the field-patient observation and investigations that lead to information about Earth’s climate history. Environmentalist Cherry collaborates with photojournalist Braasch to distill the information in the latter’s adult Earth under Fire (2007), adding examples of young people whose participation in citizen science projects through their schools supports the ongoing work of documenting these changes. The topically organized text is informative and accessible, explicit in its message, positive in tone and particularly useful in its broad array of examples and suggestions for student involvement in both inquiry and solutions. Numerous small photographs show children and adults around the world, a wide range of affected wildlife and effects of climate change on the landscape. A lengthy “Resources” section includes both books and a variety of information and action sources with Internet addresses. The scientists whose work is described are listed in a separate index, identified by position. A must for school libraries, and science teachers may want copies of their own. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
–Kirkus Reviews (March 1, 2008) ? Starred Review
If You Were My Baby: A Wildlife Lullaby
Gentle teaching, snuggling and playtime moments between wildlife mothers and their children are the highlight of Hodgkins’s offering. “If you were my baby beaver, I would show you how to build well, using branches, mud, and hard work.”A mother bat would snuggle her baby upside down, while a duck mom would paddle ahead of her ducklings, leading them. The final spread celebrates the fact that, “YOU are my baby,” and we can delight in nature’s wonders together. While meant to be a lullaby, not all of the animals’ interactions are sleep-inducing, nor is there a tune. Regardless, if the goal is to introduce a love of nature, this will do it. The illustrations are beautifully detailed and yet softly muted at the same time. The animals are center-stage, perfect for the youngest listeners. This is similar to Kate McMullan’s If You Were My Bunny (2003). Where this one is without the accompanying lullabies of the other, it makes up for it with the art.
–Kirkus Reviews (August 15, 2005)
In the Trees, Honey Bees
Simple rhymes and striking full-bleed illustrations introduce the daily lives of honeybees to very young readers and listeners. Arbo’s detailed paintings show vistas of a bucolic farm visited by oversized honeybees, glorious flowers and close-ups of a hive inside a tree. . . .
–Kirkus Reviews (March 15, 2009)
Inside All
Mason and Welch present a story that folds in on itself and then out. Swirling colors and abstract spirals telescope from the universe, to the galaxy, to a valley and a village, to a home, a child’s bedroom, the child snuggled beneath a quilt, to the child’s own heart. With a quote from Einstein as its touchstone, the text opens into sweet rhythms: “Inside all / Is a universe / Energy flowing. / Inside the universe / Is a galaxy / Milky and glowing.” With richly colored mixed-media swirls that resolve into hills and trees, windows and bedrooms, each opening displays double-page, full-bleed pictures with a single white star superimposed throughout. The last line of each three-line text curves to echo the spiral motif. The images tend toward the abstract but are recognizable, creating a very gentle and quite moving bedtime story.
–Kirkus Reviews (August 1, 2008)
Over in the Arctic
Modeled after the traditional song “Over in the Meadow,” this (for the most part) easily chanted rhyme introduces a variety of land and sea animals and birds found in the tundra. Standard number-recognition and counting concepts are augmented by additional ideas and vocabulary in the active text, which highlights the Arctic climate, animal habits and the proper names for the animals’ young. “Over in the Arctic / Where some creatures migrate, / Lived a mother snow goose / And her little goslings eight. /’Honk,’ said the mother. / ‘We honk,’ said the eight. / So they honked and flew south / Where some creatures migrate.” Graceful, stylish cut-paper collages in a mixture of bright colors and patterns create icy backgrounds for each scene. Well-conceived extension ideas for curriculum and art connections follow a “hidden animal” game and a “Fact or Fiction” explanation about the rhyme’s tundra environment. A value-added exploration of the Arctic for preschoolers and early elementary-age children.
–Kirkus Reviews (August 1, 2008)
Take Me Home, Country Roads
Canyon has outdone himself in his second pairing with a John Denver tune, this one about returning home to the place of his roots.
A cast of wonderfully expressive characters journey day and night toward a reunion. Just as in real life, the family members are an interesting bunch, humorously reflected in the vehicles they are driving-a peace-sign-adorned Volkswagen van, a motorcycle, a station wagon towing a camper, a pickup truck, a camouflage-painted jeep and a fancy touring auto. The joyous reunion and its attendant feast and musical jam will have families itching to gather together. Canyon`s portrayal of the song`s West Virginia mountains and countryside as a quilt is inspired. Painting on textured paper and including every detail, right down to the stitches between the differently patterned “fabrics” making up the fields, mountains and trees, even hardcore quilters might be fooled into thinking this was the work of a needle and thread.
–Kirkus Review (October 1, 2005)
There’s a Babirusa in my Bathtub
A baker’s dozen of exotic animals are introduced in this intriguing title. Organized alphabetically from babirusa to Tasmanian devil, each double-page spread features a poem, a short expository text, a “fabulous fact” and a striking painting that includes a hidden object or objects mentioned in the poem or text. . .
–Kirkus Reviews (March 15, 2009)