Sweet.
Boxing is known as the sweet science, but the inventor of the Popsicle, might disagree.
Born in 1894, Frank William Epperson always seemed to know he wanted to be a great inventor when he grew up. He was an inquisitive young boy, always pondering big questions: “Do goldfish sleep? Do ants have ears? Do woodpeckers get headaches from pecking all day?” Frank’s back porch was his laboratory, where he “tinkered and tested. Analyzed and scrutinized.” When he was 10, he built a handcar with two handles and zipped around the neighborhood. But it was his interest in liquids, flavored soda waters in particular, that led to his great invention. One unusually cold San Francisco night in 1905, he left one of his drinks outside, and by morning it had frozen. “He had invented a frozen drink on a stick!” But it wasn’t until years later that the adult Epperson acted on the memory. He created a box in which he could freeze several test tubes filled with fruit juice and created the Ep-sicle to sell at shops, county fairs, and beaches. Pavlović’s exuberant mixed-media illustrations are the perfect complement to Renaud’s lively text. They even intersperse science experiments to help young readers understand the science behind Frank’s procedures. Epperson, his family, and his environs were white; the final double-page spread offers a diverse cast of characters united in their love of Epperson’s invention, now called Popsicles.
Sweet. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0028-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard.
Rotner follows Hello Spring (2017) with this salute to the fall season.
Name a change seen in northern climes in fall, and Rotner likely covers it here, from plants, trees, and animals to the food we harvest: seeds are spread, the days grow shorter and cooler, the leaves change and fall (and are raked up and jumped in), some animals migrate, and many families celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. As in the previous book, the photographs (presented in a variety of sizes and layouts, all clean) are the stars here, displaying both the myriad changes of the season and a multicultural array of children enjoying the outdoors in fall. These are set against white backgrounds that make the reddish-orange print pop. The text itself uses short sentences and some solid vocabulary (though “deep sleep” is used instead of “hibernate”) to teach readers the markers of autumn, though in the quest for simplicity, Rotner sacrifices some truth. In several cases, the addition of just a few words would have made the following oversimplified statements reflect reality: “Birds grow more feathers”; “Cranberries float and turn red.” Also, Rotner includes the statement “Bees store extra honey in their hives” on a page about animals going into deep sleep, implying that honeybees hibernate, which is false.
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3869-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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