Review by Booklist Review
The collaboration of poet Frost and photographer Lieder continues in this handsome volume celebrating new life emerging in the natural world. Whether capturing jewel-like slug eggs glowing in diffuse light, dandelion seeds floating through the air, or recently hatched spiders walking on a curved blade of grass, the color photos (sometimes highly magnified) are riveting. In addition to insects and other small creatures, the animals featured include birds and mammals, such as baby robins, newborn lambs, and a white-tailed deer fawn. A companion book to Frost and Lieder's Step Gently Out (2012), Sweep Up the Sun (2015), and Among a Thousand Fireflies (2016), this volume has a simply written, poetic text that invites viewers to take notice of the new life all around them. It concludes with the lines, So many new creatures / with so much to do / the world is / wide awake. / Are you? An inherently joyful celebration of new life, this picture book is a natural for spring read-aloud sessions.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-New life abounds in the animal kingdom-"Wake up," says the sun, and look at all that there is to discover! Gorgeous full-page photographs of animals in their natural habitat accompany Frost's rhyming poem. Young children will love identifying the creatures that they see on the pages and guessing at the riddlelike stanzas of the poem. There are insects, birds, amphibians, and mammals in stunning, detailed close-ups. Adding to the allure of this book is a wonderful photo index at the back with a caption naming the various flora and fauna and providing a snippet of information regarding the setting of each photo. This title could easily be used in classrooms for language arts and science activities galore. The photos are so gorgeous that this volume could double as a "cocoa table book." VERDICT A delightful combination of fine poetry and photography, this is a seasonal treat that should be shared widely.-Amy Shepherd, St. Anne's Episcopal School, Middleton, DE © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Nature's littlest creatures figure large in this poetic portrait of their early movements.In Frost and Lieder's first three collaborations, the award-winning poet/photographer duo transfixed pre-readers with spare verse and uncanny photos focused on insects, birds in flight, and the hidden lives of fireflies. Here, the pair looks to a variety of tiny and youthful creatures to deliver a message similar to Step Gently Out's (2012) invitation to explore the natural world: "So many new creatures / with so much to do // the world is / wide awake. / Are you?" Frost's motivational picture-book poem asks children to inspect Lieder's photos of familiar infant animals like cygnets, a fawn, tadpole, and lambs alongside rarely seen baby woodchucks, a sawfly larvaeven translucent slug eggsand consider their potential. Lieder again demonstrates that he is not only a master of catching light where it falls, but capturing intimate moments only the most patient of observers would notice. His latest jaw-dropping images reveal with preternatural acumen details as subtle as the shadow of a praying mantis on a peony petal, feathers lining a tree swallow's nest, and the tiniest of "newly hatched" cellar spiders dancing on a blade of grass, as Frost notes "New life is everywhere / open your eyes." Descriptive endnotes lend additional context to the species on display. Stunning as ever: another irresistible imperative from Frost and Lieder to get up and out into nature. (Picture book. 3-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
