Though there is a lot in one place, it’s not quite on par with Marilyn Burns’ Brown Paper series or David A. Adler’s popular...
Lots of hands-on games, activities and challenges allow readers to learn and practice some valuable math skills and concepts.
Six chapters, each with its own table of contents, explore numbers, fractions, patterns, math facts, shapes, and points and position. Each double-page spread offers readers a simple introduction to a concept, such as number codes, Carroll diagrams, probability or tessellations, as well as a game or activity to cement or extend the learning (these are classified as easy, medium or hard). For the most part, the numbered steps are easy to follow, though occasionally page layout may prove confusing. While the projects mostly use common household materials, some are much more complicated than they need to be; complex drawing and cutting may intimidate children, especially when faced with the perfect examples in the photos. There are other flaws amid the fun. Some of the language is awkward (“take turns to throwing die”); one game instructs kids to cut out diamond shapes, but the picture shows a cut diamond gem; and some things are assumed instead of explained—“five-a-side soccer,” for instance. Other titles publishing simultaneously include Hands-On! Science Experiments, Hands-On! Nature Projects and Hands-On! Art Projects.
Though there is a lot in one place, it’s not quite on par with Marilyn Burns’ Brown Paper series or David A. Adler’s popular books; still it may be useful to those who work with kids in a teaching capacity. (Math activity book. 6-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-77093-890-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
A lovely encouragement to young writers to persist.
This follow-up to How To Read a Story (2005) shows a child going through the steps of creating a story, from choosing an idea through sharing with friends.
A young black child lies in a grassy field writing in a journal, working on “Step 1 / Search for an Idea— / a shiny one.” During a walk to the library, various ideas float in colorful thought bubbles, with exclamation points: “playing soccer! / dogs!” Inside the library, less-distinct ideas, expressed as shapes and pictures, with question marks, float about as the writer collects ideas to choose from. The young writer must then choose a setting, a main character, and a problem for that protagonist. Plotting, writing with detail, and revising are described in child-friendly terms and shown visually, in the form of lists and notes on faux pieces of paper. Finally, the writer sits in the same field, in a new season, sharing the story with friends. The illustrations feature the child’s writing and drawing as well as images of imagined events from the book in progress bursting off the page. The child’s main character is an adventurous mermaid who looks just like the child, complete with afro-puff pigtails, representing an affirming message about writing oneself into the world. The child’s family, depicted as black, moves in the background of the setting, which is also populated by a multiracial cast.
A lovely encouragement to young writers to persist. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5666-8
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.
The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.
Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-55-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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