Royston’s latest science title is an in-depth introduction to the human body for the youngest readers. Divided into five main sections (heart and lungs, bones and teeth, brain, digestive system and skin), the book treats subtopics in successive double-page spreads, making information easily digestible for young children. Throughout the text, the emphasis is both on understanding how the body works and learning how to keep it in prime condition by eating right, exercising and so on. The “notes for parents and teachers” at the conclusion of each chapter give ideas for further activities that will broaden and deepen children’s understanding. This hands-on approach, which continues in the activity sections that grace almost every spread, is what truly makes this book shine. Full-color photographs of children and just-detailed-enough illustrations are a great balance to the information presented. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 4-10)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-55407-522-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Children will be swept up in Wesley’s vision, and have a fine time visiting Weslandia. An alphabet appears on the endpapers.
Wearing purple sneakers and a bemused expression, Wesley knows he’s an outcast: he dislikes pizza, soda, and football, and fleeing his tormentors is “the only sport he was good at.”
When he learns that each civilization has its own staple food crop, he takes as his summer project turning over a plot of ground in the back yard, and seeds brought by the wind begin to grow. Wesley can’t find the plants in any book, but the fruit and the juice are delicious, as are the tubers on the roots. He makes a hat from the bark and a robe from the inner fibers, and sells the seed oil to his former enemies as a suntan lotion/mosquito repellent. It isn’t long before he’s moved out to the yard, and invents an alphabet and a whole raft of sports for the place he calls Weslandia. In sumptuously detailed illustrations, Hawkes has vividly imagined Fleischman’s puckish text, capturing both the blandness of Wesley’s suburban surroundings and then the fabulous encroachment of the rainforest-like vegetation of his green and growing place.
Children will be swept up in Wesley’s vision, and have a fine time visiting Weslandia. An alphabet appears on the endpapers. (Picture book 5-9)Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7636-0006-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1999
BOOK TO SCREEN
A thoughtful role model for aspiring inventors.
In this collaboration from mother/daughter duo Corrigan and Corrigan Lichty, a youngster longs to quit the soccer team so she can continue dreaming up more inventions.
Marianne, a snazzily dressed young maker with tan skin, polka-dot glasses, and reddish-brown hair in two buns, feels out of place on the pitch. Her soccer-loving dad signed her up for the team, but she’d much rather be home tinkering and creating. One day she feigns illness to get out of practice (relying on a trick she learned from the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and uses her newfound time to create a flying machine made from bath towels, umbrellas, cans, and more. Eventually, her dad catches wind of her deception, and she tells him she prefers inventing to playing soccer. Immediately supportive, he plops a pot on his head and becomes Marianne’s tinkering apprentice. Told in lilting rhymes, the story resolves its conflicts rather speedily (Marianne confesses to hating soccer in one swift line). Though the text is wordy at times, it’s quite jaunty, and adults (and retro-loving kids) will chuckle at the ’80s references, from the Ferris Bueller and Dirty Dancing movie posters in Marianne’s room to the name of her dog, Patrick Swayze. True to Marianne’s creative nature, Sweetland surrounds her with lots of clutter and scraps, as well as plenty of bits and bobs. One never knows where inspiration will strike next.
A thoughtful role model for aspiring inventors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593206096
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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