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Reviewed by: Taylor Coonelly, Elementary School Librarian Title: Creep, Leap, Crunch! A Food Chain Story
Author: Jody Jensen Shaffer Illustrator: Christopher Silas Neal
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Year: 2024 Good for Grades: PreK-3 Genre/Type of Book: Nonfiction
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: N/A Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: Nominated for the CYBILS award for Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction
If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be:
A food chain story featuring colorful illustrations of the producers and consumers in nature.
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Review:
This nonfiction picture book is a lyrical story whose text grows as readers moves through the pages in one full day, then readers are shown the other possibilities that exist in the food chain. The book starts with the sun rising, and continues to each different living thing that provides for another living thing in its environment until the sun sets (the grasses with a cricket, the cricket with the deer mouse, the deer mouse with a snake, and so on). Then, the author shows the readers possibilities for the food chain shifting, like the mouse getting away from the snake, and ends with the bear (the biggest predator in the text) eating the plants from the very beginning of the story.
I like the repetition that the author uses each next page, as well as how descriptive the words are for the setting.
The illustrations are what drew me in to this text, as I love the muted natural tones used. The drawings are soft, and don't depict any actual violence that is alluded to in the text. The animal illustrations are detailed, but still fun for young readers to look at.
I could see this book being interesting to students when displayed on the shelf, because the cover shows the illustrated animals, but I could also see this book used in curricular contexts; lessons on nature, animal food chains, producers and consumers in nature, or a fun springtime read aloud. I think that students could even use the text to make their own food chains from their local natural world, or in other ecosystems.
Number of party hats:
For more about The Fastest Drummer see Teachingbooks.net
For more information about this book, see the publisher's website