More stunt than highlight, but this “eagle” does land.
A historical anecdote that tees off on readers who think that scientists are invariably serious people.
The 1971 Apollo 14 mission, the third to land on the moon, had tasks and experiments aplenty lined up, but, as they say, all work and no play…. So along the way, Alan Shepard Jr. pulled two golf balls out of one of his spacesuit pockets, attached a golf club head (a 6-iron, for the curious) to the rock scoop used to collect samples, and let fly. As moon suits of the day didn’t allow him to look down at his feet, it didn’t go well, but he did get one solid whack…which, according to a measurement made 50 years later by Andy Saunders, a photographer on Earth, went all of 120 feet. As Kelly drolly notes, “Saunders calculated that a good golfer could hit a ball over three miles” on a lunar course. Sure, but (as he doesn’t mention) all these years later, it’s still a record distance. The author adds plenty of carefully researched detail to a story that is usually barely mentioned in histories, if at all, and, at the end, a very helpful overview of every Apollo mission and what it accomplished. Being as the balls were hit in a vacuum, the sound effects (“POW!”) that Fotheringham adds to his painted scenes of figures in heavy suits lumbering over rocky moonscapes are a misleading but minor shank. Everyone in view is White until a final glimpse of a dark-skinned earthly golfer. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
More stunt than highlight, but this “eagle” does land. (photos, bibliography, picture credits) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781662680175
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
An introduction to gravity.
The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668936849
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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