The reader is invited to count the animals and plants that live on or in Minnesota's bogs, marshes, rivers, lakes, prairies, and woods, in a book with facts on the state's ecosystems and the plants and animals that make their homes there. - (Baker & Taylor)
The reader is invited to count the animals and plants that live on or in Minnesota's bogs, marshes, rivers, lakes, prairies, and woods. Includes facts on the state's ecosystems and the plants and animals that make their homes there. - (Baker & Taylor)
Five toads hop, four brook trout swim, three elk graze, two loons call, and one beaver gnaws on a paper birch tree, all under one North Star. Through bog and marsh, along river and lake, across prairie and into the woods, children learn what lives where by counting the creatures on foot or in flight, swimming or perching in exquisite woodcut and watercolor illustrations created by Beckie Prange and Betsy Bowen in an artistic collaboration. For those looking for more about the pictured wildlife, Phyllis Root includes fascinating facts and information on the state’s ecosystems and the plants and animals that make their homes there.
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Chicago Distribution Center)
Horn Book Guide Reviews
This Minnesota naturecentered counting book begins with one moose that "browses by a cobble beach / by one great lake / under one north star." Each spread continues adding numbers but changes creatures and scenery, with tongue-twisting, poetic phrases extended by the striking woodcut and watercolor illustrations. Detailed back matter about the natural environments, animals, and plants common in the "North Star State" is included. Copyright 2017 Horn Book Guide Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews
A cumulative tally of flora and fauna in Minnesota—the North Star State. Bowen's luminous painted woodcuts, based on designs by Prange, depict 10 northern biomes at sundry times of day and year. The residents of each are different, from an opening aerial glimpse of one moose browsing near a rocky Great Lakes beach followed by two brown bats in a limestone cave beneath one soaring rough-legged hawk to views of 10 teals, nine showy goldenrods, eight milkweed pods, seven Canada geese, and other sights common to a broad tallgrass prairie—all, as the refrain goes, "under one north star." After a pointed reminder about one final resident—"You live here, too," showing light-skinned figures at a campfire—Root closes with brief nature notes on the featured plants and animals, plus directions for finding Polaris in the night sky. Despite a patterned format, Root's not-particularly-rhythmic text isn't as sonically pleasing as her own Plant a Pocket of Prairie, also illustrated by Bowen (2014), or Donna M. Bateman's Out on the Prairie, illustrated by Susan Swan (2012), but as befits the various settings, the wild cast is considerably more diverse. A bright, populous countdown for nature lovers, Midwestern or otherwise. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
"Who lives here/ under one north star?" asks this quiet homage to Minnesota's wildlife and ecosystems. Root (Snowy Sunday) uses a cumulative structure as she counts up to 10 but introduces new flora and fauna with each page turn: "Five walleyes fin near wild rice/ four blue flag irises flower/ three mudpuppies wriggle/ two loons call/ one porcupine sleeps in a jack pine tree/ all along a lake/ under one north star." Prange and Bowen combine rough-hewn woodcuts with bright watercolors to give a sense of bustling marshes, sweeping plains, and snow-covered forests. Thorough endnotes dive deeper into each of the habitats and the animals that call them home. Ages 3–up. (Aug.)
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