A splendid addition to the ``Eyewitness Visual Dictionary'' series, with hundreds of outstanding color photos and drawings, all extensively labeled. Beginning with a discussion of characteristics of the plant kingdom, this logically organized volume presents plantlike nonplants (fungi, lichens, algae) and then proceeds up the phyla: liverworts and mosses; horsetails, club mosses and ferns; gymnosperms and angiosperms. Plant parts and processes (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, pollination, photosynthesis) are then discussed in greater detail; information on classification concludes the book. Though the text is technical, almost every aspect is illustrated, and each term and topic is detailed in the index. Visually beautiful and unusually complete: an excellent choice for reference and circulation, made especially accessible by index's more than 3,000 entries. (Nonfiction. 10+)
Pub Date: June 1, 1992
ISBN: 1-56458-016-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1992
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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A graphic-novel account of the science and history that first created and then, theoretically, destroyed the terrifying Dust Bowl storms that raged in the United States during the “dirty thirties.”
“A speck of dust is a tiny thing. Five of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence.” This white-lettered opening is set against a roiling mass of dark clouds that spills from verso to recto as a cartoon farmer and scores of wildlife flee for their lives. The dialogue balloon for the farmer—“Oh my God! Here it comes!”—is the first of many quotations (most of them more informative) from transcripts of eyewitnesses. These factual accounts are interspersed with eloquently simple explanations of the geology of the Great Plains, the mistake of replacing bison with cattle and other lead-ups to the devastations of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The comic-book–style characters create relief from the relentlessly grim stories of hardship and loss, set in frames appropriately backgrounded in grays and browns. Although readers learn of how the U.S. government finally intervened to help out, the text does not spare them from accounts of crippling droughts even in the current decade.
From its enticing, dramatic cover to its brown endpapers to a comical Grant Wood–esque final image, this is a worthy contribution to the nonfiction shelves. (bibliography, source notes, photographs) (Graphic nonfiction. 10 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-81550-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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As fresh and funny as ever, a classic compendium of physics in action gets a light but needed makeover.
Most of the “Things” here are still working the way they did back in 1988, 1998, and 2004, when the original and the revised editions dropped—but along with sporting new and spruced-up colors, some of the content, notably the section dubbed “The Digital Domain,” has been brought into the 21st century. Thus, the space shuttle and the VCR are no more, the workings of the telephone have been replaced by those of smartphones and telephone networks, and the jump jet has given way to the quadcopter and other types of drones. But the details that made the earlier editions delightful as well as edifying remain. In the illustrations, flights of tiny angels move the “first whoopee cushion” into place, discombobulated woolly mammoths get caught up in silly side business while helping to demonstrate scientific principles, and best of all, Macaulay’s brilliantly designed, engagingly informal diagrams and cutaways bring within the grasp of even casual viewers a greater understanding of the technological wonders of both past and present.
Necessary for every library, personal or otherwise. (index) (Reference. 11-15)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-82438-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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