by Laura Gehl ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2021
Convincing evidence that readers, too, might become scientists.
Profiles of a diverse selection of 14 21st-century scientists reveal a wide range of specialties and avocations.
To answer her title question, Gehl introduces working scientists, spread by spread, with a relatively simple text and two photographs—one at work and one at play. From meteorologist to agroecologist to software engineer, from laboratory to desert to forest, her examples represent a variety of occupational fields and workplaces. Their hobbies—painting, cooking, surfing, playing basketball or soccer, listening to live music, and so forth—are equally varied. The photographs also reflect the world’s diversity: There’s a White woman with magenta hair and colorfully tattooed arms, a Black belly dancer in classic costume, a Puerto Rican champion of Indigenous food systems, and a White man who uses forearm crutches to get about in the field. A neuroscientist wears a Sikh turban; an astronomer, a headscarf. As might be expected with such a range, some readers may find some scientists’ names challenging to pronounce, but the backmatter includes a phonetic guide to every single name—even the neuroscientist author’s. A final spread summarizes what scientists do and invites readers to imagine themselves among this group. Both selection of information and presentation have been thoughtfully designed to appeal to young readers. This will be useful in many a second or third grade classroom, and the publisher has made a teaching guide and video available.
Convincing evidence that readers, too, might become scientists. (Nonfiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5415-9799-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
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by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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by Henry Herz ; illustrated by Mercè López ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2024
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
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