Review by Booklist Review
"What is wind?" asks this lyrical picture book, which proceeds to examine wind's many moods through relatable metaphors. This "dance of air" can be a gentle butterfly or playful puppy, but don't be fooled--it can also be "an ornery opponent," with the gusts growing stronger as the pages turn. The accompanying pastel mixed-media artwork portrays children and grownups of different races and body types being increasingly buffeted by the weather as the book goes on. White, semitransparent images embody the wind, blowing through scenes as a pair of boxing gloves, a train, a whisk, and more. Each spread also contains inset text in more advanced language that describes weather phenomena in scientific terms. In addition to units on weather, this title will be helpful as a read-aloud when covering figures of speech. It also unobtrusively introduces more advanced vocabulary in context, allowing children to effortlessly absorb words that are likely new to them, such as jabbing, frantic, and fluttery. A worthwhile purchase.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--This lovely, lyrical book is all about wind. Every spread has metaphors about the wind; some also have scientific information about how the speed and direction change what people call it, such as the difference between a headwind and tailwind, or a gale and a hurricane. Softly colored artwork in mixed media provides an excellent contrast to the text, helping readers connect their experiences to the ideas presented. A diverse array of people are represented in illustrations; readers will be eager to make their own connections to the concept of wind. VERDICT An excellent mentor text for either poetry or science, this book is also an elegant way to compare and contrast different kinds of wind in a toddler or preschool setting. A first choice for any library.--Debbie Tanner
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A lyrical meditation on winds, from gentle breezes to hurricanes and tornados. As multicolored leaves and bushes join a cast of young people of diverse skin color and body shape to dance balletically through Bisaillon's increasingly swirly outdoor scenes, Shumaker offers both free verse appreciations and brief prose descriptions of wind types. After framing a general definition in terpsichorean terms--"Warm air leaps high, while cool air bows low"--the author progresses from a light breeze to helpful tailwinds that propel a soccer player to "ornery" headwinds encountered by a cyclist and on to more severe derechos. Finally, readers see a tornado doing little visible damage to a set of scattered houses in the art despite "twisting, turning, tearing up / everything in its winding path." So, the author concludes, "How would you describe the wind today?" Readers eager to discover more about this inescapable atmospheric phenomenon will find further information about each kind of wind's origin and characteristics in an afterword, which caters to budding meteorologists with a note on how anemometers work, some record-breaking blows, and a chart of the Beaufort scale. Downplaying wind's violent potential, a series of pirouettes both airy and informative. (print and web resources)(Informational picture book. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
