by Martha Brockenbrough ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2024
A valuable resource for classrooms, libraries, and forward-looking teens.
A deep dive into the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence.
The book’s early chapters cover AI’s history—going back to ideas from ancient China, Egypt, and Greece—providing readers with a thorough foundation that summarizes various technological developments, each more advanced than the next. This section is best suited to research papers, as the language tends toward the dense and dry. That said, readers will appreciate the text’s impressive clarity in technical explanations and the author’s obvious respect for young readers’ intelligence. The writing becomes remarkably more engaging once the book progresses to modern applications—the good (some medical uses), the bad (surveillance of daily life, deception by bots), and the problems AI can learn to solve. Brockenbrough is particularly good at finding ways to tie its applications to students’ lives through relatable examples. At the same time, she covers the broader international context (for example, she compares the AI race between China and the U.S. to the Cold War space race). The book documents both the diversity of the humans behind the creation of AI and the racial bias that can be baked into the technology through the flawed data it’s trained on. A careful neutrality, an emphasis on the pros and cons of AI itself, clear ethical judgments regarding certain uses (e.g., privacy violations and manipulation of opinions and emotions), factual accuracy, and rigorous documentation all support authorial credibility and make this an important read.
A valuable resource for classrooms, libraries, and forward-looking teens. (bibliography, endnotes, index) (Nonfiction. 13-18)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9781250765925
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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by Adam Eli ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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by George Takei & Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott ; illustrated by Harmony Becker ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2019
A powerful reminder of a history that is all too timely today.
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A beautifully heart-wrenching graphic-novel adaptation of actor and activist Takei’s (Lions and Tigers and Bears, 2013, etc.) childhood experience of incarceration in a World War II camp for Japanese Americans.
Takei had not yet started school when he, his parents, and his younger siblings were forced to leave their home and report to the Santa Anita Racetrack for “processing and removal” due to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The creators smoothly and cleverly embed the historical context within which Takei’s family’s story takes place, allowing readers to simultaneously experience the daily humiliations that they suffered in the camps while providing readers with a broader understanding of the federal legislation, lawsuits, and actions which led to and maintained this injustice. The heroes who fought against this and provided support to and within the Japanese American community, such as Fred Korematsu, the 442nd Regiment, Herbert Nicholson, and the ACLU’s Wayne Collins, are also highlighted, but the focus always remains on the many sacrifices that Takei’s parents made to ensure the safety and survival of their family while shielding their children from knowing the depths of the hatred they faced and danger they were in. The creators also highlight the dangerous parallels between the hate speech, stereotyping, and legislation used against Japanese Americans and the trajectory of current events. Delicate grayscale illustrations effectively convey the intense emotions and the stark living conditions.
A powerful reminder of a history that is all too timely today. (Graphic memoir. 14-adult)Pub Date: July 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-60309-450-4
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Top Shelf Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2019
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