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UP! UP! UP! SKYSCRAPER

Crisply informative.

Lucky kids don hard hats to witness the construction behind the fence.

A supervisor explains the building process step by step, in both verse and longer paragraphs. First, a drilling rig digs a long thin trench around the entire site. Bars of steel go into the trench to form the bones of the new skyscraper. Next comes the concrete. “Pour, pour, pour! / Wet concrete / A line of mixers / Along the street,” reads the verse. In smaller type, the text explains, “It takes a lot of concrete to fill a trench. After one mixer empties out, the next one moves up so we can keep pouring.” More digging clears the earth inside. Suen carefully uses appropriate terminology in the prose portions. Under the dirt that remains is solid rock called bedrock. Long concrete piles are pounded into this bedrock to steady the building. The foundation consists of concrete poured over a rebar frame. Spread by spread, the building goes up as the multiracial crew works and multiracial kids look on. Finally, the kids stand on the street staring up at the new skyscraper, and the last page of the book unfolds up to reveal it. Suen’s rhymes will feel a little babyish to all but the youngest construction aficionados. Her plain text works better with O’Rourke’s Adobe Photoshop illustrations, multiple important components of each neatly labeled.

Crisply informative. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 2, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-58089-710-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017

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MAMA BUILT A LITTLE NEST

A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.

Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.

Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.

A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.   (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 18, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014

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ASTRONAUT ANNIE

A solid, small step for diversifying STEM stories.

What does Annie want to be?

As career day approaches, Annie wants to keep her job choice secret until her family sees her presentation at school. Readers will figure it out, however, through the title and clues Tadgell incorporates into the illustrations. Family members make guesses about her ambitions that are tied to their own passions, although her brother watches as she completes her costume in a bedroom with a Mae Jemison poster, starry décor, and a telescope. There’s a celebratory mood at the culminating presentation, where Annie says she wants to “soar high through the air” like her basketball-playing mother, “explore faraway places” like her hiker dad, and “be brave and bold” like her baker grandmother (this feels forced, but oven mitts are part of her astronaut costume) so “the whole world will hear my exciting stories” like her reporter grandfather. Annie jumps off a chair to “BLAST OFF” in a small illustration superimposed on a larger picture depicting her floating in space with a reddish ground below. It’s unclear if Annie imagines this scene or if it’s her future-self exploring Mars, but either scenario fits the aspirational story. Backmatter provides further reading suggestions and information about the moon and four women astronauts, one of whom is Jemison. Annie and her family are all black.

A solid, small step for diversifying STEM stories. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 6, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-88448-523-0

Page Count: 36

Publisher: Tilbury House

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018

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