As a digital subscriber, you’ll receive unlimited access to Horn Book web exclusives and extensive archives, as well as access to our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database.
To access other site content, visit The Horn Book homepage.
To continue you need an active subscription to hbook.com.
Subscribe now to gain immediate access to everything hbook.com has to offer, as well as our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database, which contains tens of thousands of short, critical reviews of books published in the United States for young people.
Thank you for registering. To have the latest stories delivered to your inbox, select as many free newsletters as you like below.
No thanks. Return to article
40 pp.
| Candlewick |
April, 2024 |
TradeISBN 9781536223132$18.99
(2)
K-3
Illustrated by
Natasha Donovan.
Hocker reminds readers that there is more to nature than a casual glance affords. When a group of child and adult hikers discovers an animal skull, they are prompted to consider what they can deduce from examining it, for this natural relic has a story to tell. "A skull speaks in arches and ridges and caverns of bones. It speaks in teeth and cracks, and holes into, and holes through. It says: I was." Readers turn the page and examine the skull (enlarged from the previous page's illustration), noting the two large openings where eyes once were, eyes that defined this creature as a "watcher." Donovan's full-bleed digital art on the next double-page spread depicts a lynx spotting a rabbit while hunting at twilight. This pattern continues, introducing a deer, a beaver, a hummingbird, a wolf, and an owl: shades of blue outlined in black display each animal's skull, text describes a prominent feature, and the animal is seen in its habitat employing this feature. Extensive back matter utilizes both text and a labeled illustration of a human skull to define features such as orbits, the cranium, and the mandible; additional attributes of the six skulls discussed in the main text; and resources for further inquiry. Once readers catch on to the unusual device of narrators being a succession of animal skulls, the text flows smoothly, and both the facts presented and the plea to appreciate the multiple ways nature speaks to us are clear.
Reviewer: Betty Carter
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
January, 2024