Kurt Cyrus

As in World Pizza by Cece Meng, a misunderstanding has a drastic result: instead of "a trillium," Polly's Plant Pavilion delivers a trillion trees, starting with a thousand. The boy and his sister and their family get to work, planting trees first in their yard, then along roads, in parks ("We asked permission, just in case"), and elsewhere: as a windbreak, on a hillside to prevent erosion, in an area that had been burned. Appropriate types of trees are planted in each place (e.g. ash, show more alder, willow, and cottonwood near a river), and a final page includes advice for planting trees. A smooth, silly, rhyming read-aloud with an environmental slant. show less

There was so much more here of interest than just the very pleasing rhythm and rhyme of children's poetry; I was pleasantly surprised at the wit and wordplay that normally isn't found to such an extent in children's poetry. I was laughing out loud at points. A very enjoyable read.

Cute story, some really excellent sly digs at the slowness of chameleon movement, and wonderful, wonderful! Illustrations. Quirky, lovely, and so seamlessly integrated with the story I had to double check that there were 2 people working on this one.

Oh I felt like I was in the military while reading this book. Im a little put out and feel kind of like I was just yelled at? The concept is definitely interesting--bricks making up a lot of the worlds infrastructure and its even included how they are made. The chanting counting and instructions with illustrations of children doing heavy labor I am really not sure about. I think this is an attempt to interest boys in something related to school and their possible interest of dump trucks? The show more illustrations are cool. Cyrus is definitely a talented artist and much of the verse works well. I think there is a divide here where not enough information about the process comes through which is sacrificed because Cyrus is trying to concentrate on it being a math book but had not quite figured out a way of keeping some amount of setting or plot in there as well... I am just not sure. I would definitely like to hear others opinions. show less