Review By HOMA WOODRUM

How to Take Your Grandmother to the Museum is written by Lois Wyse and Molly Rose Goldman and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (the illustrator of the lovely Houndsley and Catina series previously reviewed on Vegbooks).  I was drawn to this book when searching for other books by the illustrator and couldn’t resist the title.  What a fun book!  You might worry from the title that the tone would be one of condescension to the titular grandmother but the story is set up as a young girl loving her adventures with her grandmother so much that when she discovers her grandmother has never been to the Natural History Museum she wants to take her. Molly has just been there on a school field trip so she gets to be the expert.

I love that the story features a little girl who is interested in the natural world – her bedroom is decorated with bugs, space posters, and dinosaurs.  I think this book is lovely for both boys and girls but it is important for young girls to have smart, curious girls to identify with.  “We’ll be doing a lot of walking,” Molly warns her grandmother, “so remember to wear comfortable shoes.”  Mixed with the illustrated components are photos of exhibits so the reader gets to see photos of dinosaur bones and animal exhibits much like you would see in your local museum of natural history.  Molly does not spare any detail with her grandmother, telling her “Pterosaurs are flying reptiles [...] Tuxpuxuara had a wingspan of 8 feet, but Pteranodon was even bigger.  It had a wingspan of 23 feet.”  The details fascinated my three and a half year old daughter.

Some notes for veg parents, a conversation between Molly and her grandma mentions T. rex teeth being “like giant steak knives.”  I liked how they view the scenes of animals in their natural habitats but many natural history museums use the actual animals stuffed for exhibits set in dioramas so those are depicted as well as pinned insects.  Another important scene to mention occurs when Molly and Grandma view the ostriches:

“I once had a hat with an ostrich plume,” she said.

“Grandma!  Did you kill a bird for one of its feathers?”

“I didn’t, but somebody did.  We don’t do that anymore.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.  “Good,” I said.  “We have to save our wildlife.”

At the end of their visit, Grandma buys Molly a rock for her rock collection and the book rounds out with details about some of the exhibits and words used in the book.  The book is 48 pages so it is not a quick read but my daughter (and I) loved it.  An endnote lets the reader know the book is based on a true story, Molly really did go with her grandma to the museum:

As we walked the halls of the museum, I felt totally connected– the connection not only of Molly and me, but the connection of life to life, of the living to the living and the once-alive to the yet-to-be-born.  When we reached the street, I hugged my granddaughter and thanked her.  No, this is not an easy world we share.  But what a joy to be alive.

Review By JENNIFER GANNETT

Daniel Pinkwater’s Wolf Christmas is the tale of a small wolf pack on Christmas Eve. Told from the perspective of one of the pack’s young wolves, Pinkwater and his illustrator wife Jill Pinkwater depict life in the pack. On this particular night, the young wolves are playful in the moonlight, but the pack’s adults cannot be coaxed into joining their fun. The dynamic shifts when Uncle Louis, a more lighthearted “funny wolf” arrives, inviting the pack to go on a run through the woods to an overlook. Though the other adults are hesitant, mindful of the dangers that the nearby humans present, Uncle Louis reminds them that the humans will be peaceful tonight, for this is a special night to them. All of the wolves make the trip, and are rewarded with the complex smells of humans, the twinkling lights of their Christmastime celebrations….and song. The wolf pack joins in with their own singing.

This is a special story which not only illustrates some typical wolf behavior but also introduces the concept of human-wolf conflict in a gentle way. Discuss this with your children, or just enjoy the rare moment when all animals are experiencing a collective peace.

The author, a contributor to NPR, can be heard reading this story on Weekend Edition here.

Readers with sensitive kids will want to note that there is a mention of the wolves’ meal, venison.

Ages 4 and up.

Review By JENNIFER GANNETT

When a bird named Joy alights for a rest on a bare, lonely mountain in the middle of nowhere, their conversation sets in motion a series of events that will forever change the mountain. Alice McLerran’s The Mountain that Loved a Bird is the tender, touching tale of a friendship that spans the ages.

The mountain begs Joy to stay but Joy must fly on. She passes word to her offspring to visit the mountain as they migrate, and they in turn pass word to their daughters. “Each Joy will have a daughter Joy,” the original Joy tells the mountain, “so that no matter how many years pass, you will always have a friend to greet you and fly above you and sing to you.”

After one hundred years of these entirely too-brief visits, the poor mountain can stand no more and bursts into tears. The tears of despair end up being just what the mountain needs most, for the tears turn into a stream. The next year, Joy brings a seed with her and tucks it into a crack. This seed becomes what is the first of many plants and trees that will take root, attracting insects and others. Eventually, the mountain and surrounding areas become beautiful, lush habitats and Joy returns not just with a seed but with a stick for a nest. The mountain is complete.

The prose of this touching story is abundant and beautiful. Bright illustrations by Eric Carle harmonize with the tale, but don’t be fooled — this story isn’t for the The Very Hungry Caterpillar set. It is a more complex book for children 6 and up to enjoy, and enjoy they will.

Review By JENNIFER GANNETT

We picked up All About Turkeys at the library and have been enjoying it a great deal during the last few weeks. Author and illustrator Jim Arnosky provides detailed facts and images about the bird that is always late November’s talk of the town: the turkey. Our young fact collector loved hearing about all of the details about wild turkeys, and I learned a great deal myself (for example, wild turkeys can fly up to fifty miles per hour, though they are not winter migrators). This knowledge made for interesting conversation as we rambled through suburban yards in the dark one recent evening, seeking out an injured wild turkey we’d seen at dusk (what the book doesn’t mention is that a one-legged hopping turkey can be difficult to find in this environment). My child reminded me that the hopping turkey would probably be ok even without a stint at wildlife rehab because turkeys are powerful birds who can only be killed by high level canine or feline predators — or humans.

This book does not talk about the wild turkey’s less fortunate domestic counterpart. It is, however, a nice way to introduce some of the traits of turkeys to kids. I’m looking forward to checking out some more books by Mr. Arnosky.

Ages 6 and up.

Review By JENNIFER GANNETT

The Magic School Bus series of books and cartoons are a reliable source of good information about science for elementary aged kids. We have read a number of these books and enjoyed them, so I picked up The Magic School Bus Goes Upstream: A Book About Salmon Migration thinking that this would be a good introduction to the life cycle of anadromous fish.

The book starts out shakily for veg folks because Ms. Frizzle’s class is assigned to catch salmon for the school’s annual Fish Fry. However, if you and your family can push through some of the more fantastical elements typical of the class’s adventures (yes, the Magic School Bus does indeed turn into a female spawning salmon, “laying eggs” in the form of Ms. Frizzle’s students — eggs which then get fertilized by a nearby male salmon), there are a lot of interesting facts and information to be gleaned because the life cycle of anadromous fish is indeed fascinating. The plot follows salmon as they move from ocean to river to stream, navigating very real hazards such as sharks, seals and a dam.

Veg kids and parents will cheer at the end, for after experiencing the life of a salmon, Ms. Frizzle’s students have a newfound respect for the fish. Instead of bringing salmon to the Fish Fry, they serve up fish-shaped potato sticks.

As mentioned above, there are short but graphic depictions of reproductive processes.

A fun and very informational book for ages 5 and up.

Review By HUYEN MACMICHAEL

As my husband and I sat with our specially ordered vegan meals in front of us, I heard the wedding guests sitting on the other side of the table raving about deep frying turkeys and giving pointers to another couple about how to do it and I had an insane urge to yell “der Gobbler, Gobbler!” like the turkey-obsessed Swedish Chef on one of our family’s favorite movies, “Muppet Family Christmas.”

As the holidays loom ahead, more and more talk of turkeys will crop up and usually in terms of meat (although there is an increasing number of vegetarian options like The New York Times’ Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving). It is especially lovely to find gems like Gobble Gobble which focuses on turkeys as interesting animals with unique traits rather than a traditional holiday specialty: stuffed, roasted carcass.

Although Gobble Gobble is primarily about wild turkeys, it emphasizes the way turkeys are originally meant to be rather than the flightless, over-bred, overweight domestic turkeys found on factory and smaller farms.

Similar to Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond, Gobble Gobble has an observant, young naturalist modeling respect for wildlife. Jenny is a young girl who is lucky enough to live where wild turkeys wander through her yard. With each season, she describes their antics and imparts more information about wild turkeys. My daughter and I loved how expressive and detailed the turkey illustrations were and some pages made us laugh out loud. Author and illustrator Cathryn Falwell, uses block printing, paint, and collage techniques for her colorful illustrations.

The rhymes are cute, without feeling forced, and the name of each season is written in a different color. At the back are several pages with additional information and history about wild turkeys and their domestic counterparts, explanations of a turkey snood (the red doohickey on the head) and caruncle (bumpy skin around the head area), and terms like tom or gobbler (male), poult (baby turkey), jake (young male), and jenny (young female). There are also some suggested activities for kids and an animal print identification activity.

One of my favorite lines in the story is, “The year is coming to an end. Turkeys know that I’m their friend.” It gives me hope that characters like Jenny (and even Swedish Chef!) can model kindness towards birds so children know that turkeys and other birds are animal friends, not a holiday meal. Hopefully, this year many folks will befriend a domestic turkey by either adopting a turkey at a local farm sanctuary, attending a vegan thanksgiving event, and/or making several of many delicious vegan Thanksgiving recipes (Nava Atlas has a new Vegan Holiday Kitchen cookbook out!) to introduce to family and friends.

Ages 3 and up.

Review By JESSICA ALMY

Through poetry and illustration, Joyce Sidman and Beth Krommes explore all the diverse places — from snail shells to hibernating chipmunks – that spirals appear in the natural world in Swirl by Swirl.

This stunning book brings readers underground to woodchuck burrows, up close to observe snails, and into a torrent of ocean. While the text is simple enough for a toddler, the illustrations and endpapers of the book teem with details, certain to hold the attention of an older child (or even an adult, if you’re anything like me). We learn both that a spiral “reaches out . . . exploring the world” (presented along with images of common octopus and spiny sea horse), and also that the “number of sprial rows of florets in a sunflower — or scales on a pinecome, or bumps on a pineapple — follow a patter called the Fibonacci sequence” (in the end notes).

People concerned with animal rights will delight to see free-roaming merino sheep engaged in social interactions and elephants and monkeys in their native habitats.

I highly recommend this book for kids ages 3 to 8.

Review By HUYEN MACMICHAEL

This adorable take on “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” made me and my daughter want to clap our hands and sing the story. We thoroughly enjoyed reading and rereading it. My daughter got a kick out of the surprise element near the end of the book (you’re going to have to read it to find out!) and she’ll pick this book out to read/sing on her own.

Jo is a girl who happens to be a little naturalist, observing and sketching the wildlife such as fish, birds, and dragonflies around a pond (coincidentally, my daughter and I have been attending a local children’s Audubon Naturalist Society activity which has a pond where we identified dragonfly nymphs and other wildlife).

Laura Bryant’s illustrations are clean and colorful and give hints of the next animal to make an appearance. I loved the way the author Mary Quattlebaum connected Jo to Old MacDonald and included Jo’s nature sketches in the story. The repetition and illustrations can help early readers begin to recognize words and the animal noises are appealing to even very young kids. Jo is inquisitive, observant, respectful of wildlife, and artistic to boot. I have high hopes my daughter can be just like Jo!

A couple pages at the end of the book offer information about pond flora and fauna as well as additional activities for kids and resources.

With a growing movement for kids to get “plugged into nature” (versus staring at a TV or computer all day) and the latest concern that kids have what author Richard Louv dubs “Nature Deficit Disorder,” this story introduces a way to get outside to explore. I’m planning on taking it out in the spring to read to my daughter (or she can read it to me) and any of our outdoor pals. It fits right in with some research I had begun this past spring and summer about progressive approaches for teaching children such as outdoor education and the forest schools of Europe. I believe experiential learning is one of the best way kids (and many adults) learn, and nature studies help kids gain a better understanding, as well as appreciation, of the bigger world around them. Young kids already have a natural interest in wildlife and Jo MacDonald models more nature exploration as well as an exciting, benevolent look at the great outdoors.

Ages 3-8.

Review By ANDREA ZOLLMAN

With a story reminiscent of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax and Bill Peet’s The Wump World, Uno’s Garden  features the vivid illustrations of Graeme Base (Animalia) and a story of  how plants, animals and humans can either live in harmony or not, depending on the choices those humans make.

While hiking one day, elf-like Uno discovers a forest, where he decides to build his home. The forest is filled with animals from Base’s imagination: winged “moopaloops;” bunny-faced “puddlebuts;” and a “snortlepig.” It is a wondrous forest, and other people join Uno. Soon the settlement grows into a village. While the number of buildings and people increase, the number of animals and plants decrease. The village becomes a town, and tourists descend upon it. Yet, “Uno kept working in his garden.” A train, spewing smoke and ash into the air, whizzes around the now polluted, sprawling city. Smokestacks, resembling long bottlenecks, release smoke into the air. Only a few animals remain, including two “pricklebacks,” green, snail-like animals with lumpy conical shells on their backs.

Eventually, the citizens of this crowded, polluted city abandon it: all except Uno, who tends his garden in an alley surrounded by towering, empty buildings. Uno’s children and grandchildren record the resurgence of plants and animals and build structures that blend into the forest rather than destroy it.  At the book’s end, a fold-out page reveals a forest teeming with life and a city that is in perfect balance with it.

Throughout the book, Base notes at the top of each two-page spread how many animals and plants survive in comparison to the number of buildings that populate the forest. This book provides younger children with an introduction to the ideas of conservation and sustainability, and they and their parents will appreciate the story’s simplicity as well as the rich illustrations that accompany it.

Ages 4 to 8.

Review By CAROLYN M. MULLIN

In the same spirit as The Little Prince comes this otherworldly tale of a young girl who befriends an elephant at the local zoo. A vulture, chimps, and of course the elephant look forlorn behind the bars of their barren cages/enclosures. A carrot entices the elephant to consider this potential young ally and eventually “they play an elephant game. And sometimes they play a girl game. And then one day, the elephant is gone. Back to Africa, says the caretaker.”

The text is minimal, but the images portray the depth of the quandary of captivity and the strength of the pair’s bond. As the plot proceeds, the young girl asks a bird to check on the elephant. During the swift’s travels in Africa, author and illustrator Nicole de Cock shows the distinction for the animals in captivity and the wild: the zoo’s giraffe faces a bitter cold winter while those in the savannah enjoy a warm romp through the grasslands alongside ostriches and other wildlife. The swift returns with good news, and the girl decides to venture off to Africa where, after quite a bit of searching, she reunites with her friend.

A sweet, thoughtful and touching narrative, The Girl and the Elephant is a great find for those looking to foster compassion for animals in their little ones.

Ages 4-8.