A clever and appealing introduction to a remarkable natural phenomenon.
Blowing their tops off, growing taller and wider, and forming new mountains and islands, volcanoes can be both destructive and creative. Extraordinary illustrations complement this description of eight extraordinary Earth events.
A dual-level narrative provides both a simple explanation of how volcanoes work and longer paragraphs that go into greater depth. Rusch offers as examples eight volcanoes from around the world. From barely perceptible swellings of the land in central Oregon to a whole new island in Iceland and the vast caldera left by explosions in the Yellowstone area, the variety of volcanic activities may surprise readers. The text is set on gorgeous full-bleed images, sometimes realistic and sometimes allusive. Swan has digitally manipulated collages of found objects, textures and hand-painted papers, putting them together in ways that suggest the varied scenery of her examples. Palm trees, puffins and people give depth to vast landscapes. The colors are particularly striking: jade and turquoise waters, red and orange magma and hot lava, shades of gray and brown for the ash. In her read-aloud text, Rusch makes plentiful use of onomatopoetic words: “Pow!” “Hisssss!” “Gurgle,” “Tssss.” The fuller explanations introduce, define and, when necessary, offer a suggested pronunciation for more technical words: pahoehoe (a kind of cooled lava surface), tephra, lava bombs.
A clever and appealing introduction to a remarkable natural phenomenon. (glossary, bibliography, further reading) (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58089-408-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Models attention to detail and deductive reasoning in a fun beach setting, complete with interesting facts.
Beachcombers and shell seekers, gather ’round and meet Shelby and Watts, Planetary Investigators.
When Fred the hermit crab can’t find a new, larger shell to move into, he seeks out the “brilliant brains” of Shelby and Watts. Shelby, a fox, is the detective in the duo, and Watts, a badger, loves facts, adding simple fun ones—about hermit crabs, tides, tide-pool dwellers, how shells are used, etc.—throughout the story. Watts also loves to catalog clues in his notebook. In fact, the first mystery that Shelby solves is that of Watts’ lost notebook. Young readers can watch Shelby investigate, solve, and explain her deductive process, all while learning to carefully examine all the details in each graphic panel. Once the missing shells are found, it’s “time for the hermit crab shuffle,” in which the members of a colony of hermit crabs all line up and trade up to larger homes. Final pages include “Earth-Saving Tips from Shelby & Watts,” such as taking pictures of shells instead of collecting them, eating seafood from sustainable sources, and cleaning up the beach. The seven chapters are of varying length, but with several one-panel pages and many pages with low word count, the book is shorter than it appears, which should be a confidence boost for young readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Models attention to detail and deductive reasoning in a fun beach setting, complete with interesting facts. (Graphic early reader/mystery. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20531-0
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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