Patience..

K-Gr 4--A beautifully illustrated work that explains patience and addresses how difficult it can be to wait for things that are highly anticipated. However, in the scope of the natural world, the passage of time can be quite different. The table of contents gives readers a clear layout of different events; poetic text with scientific nomenclature shows different events in short passages of time on Earth, as well as longer ones. Each entry has two spreads. The first spread explains the event and how long it takes. The second goes into more scientific detail about the event. As an example, one of the profiled events is an owl hunt: it takes an owl about an hour to hunt for its prey, and Williams explains how the owl's body adaptations help it to hunt effectively. The second spread goes into more details about the owl's hunting methods, such as quartering, where the birds fly back and forth in sections to look for their prey. Readers of all ages will find these kinds of details fascinating. The artwork adds visual amplification to the text and is expressively rendered. A warm color palette and fine detailing give the book a classic feel. VERDICT Readers will enjoy examining the pictures in this innovative approach to the subject of patience; it's a book most collections will want to find room for.--Debbie Tanner

"Some of the most magical things in life…take time and are full of WONDER." Following an introduction that explains the origins of the wordpatience (from the Latinpatientia, "to endure" or "to wait"), this well-written compendium of scientific facts, first published in the U.K., presents captivating, child-appealing information about the natural world, from phenomena that occur extremely quickly (light from the sun reaches Earth in eight minutes) to events involving longer periods (a camel can go without water for two weeks as it crosses the desert) to those taking place over the course of years (a rainforest regrows over about six decades). Each set of facts is presented on a two-page spread, beginning with a one-minute phenomenon (the human heart beats 60-100 times in one minute) and concluding with an over-100-years milestone (a Galápagos giant tortoise can live more than a century). Very lively, clear explanations are delivered in a conversational tone. The text is ably abetted by numerous dynamic, child-centric illustrations, rendered in pencil and digitally colored, that are set in easy-to-navigate panels, graphic novel--style, featuring racially diverse background characters. Dashed lines helpfully guide readers through the spreads to facilitate learning. Be patient and take your time savoring this wonderful offering. (index, bibliography)(Nonfiction. 8-11) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.