A captivating account about an engineer that’s information-packed and personal.
A nonfiction children’s book offers a detailed profile of a toy engineer.
The narration in Amanda Bright’s voice explains to young readers that “anything you can touch has been worked on by an engineer.” This includes toys—which are first dreamed up by designers and then presented to engineers, who must decide how to make ideas into real (and profitable) playthings. Kids who dream of working on making “the impossible possible” will enjoy descriptions of how teams of engineers consider questions of safety, test toys out on young audiences, and create prototypes and production models before a company orders factories to make the finished object. The “Around the World” chapter describes how Amanda’s job involves traveling to different places that manufacture various kinds of toys, and a map labels countries relevant to toy production (“Doll clothing is often sewn in Indonesia where beautiful fabrics are found”). Factory workers’ conditions, pollution, and plastic waste are not mentioned. Interviews with Amanda, presented with Moore’s photographs of the White engineer and eye-catching formatting, reveal her love of pets and running, her struggles with imposter syndrome, and her favorite food (khao soi). A short narrative of Amanda’s self-advocacy and hard work through high school and university shows possible paths for children who may wish to become engineers, though Andrus does not address systemic discrimination. Amanda notes that she adores science and math and was also motivated by her family’s lack of money to find a stable, well-paying job. In this first installment of a series highlighting women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, activities invite kids to inspect their beloved toys. They are urged to think about what materials were needed for the toys’ creation and how to improve them and to ponder their favorite ways to play. Further sections prompt reflective journaling: What goals are you determined to achieve? When have you felt brave? Young science enthusiasts will find intriguing details about how objects are produced. The work also encourages readers to plan their own future contributions.
A captivating account about an engineer that’s information-packed and personal.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63946-001-4
Page Count: 62
Publisher: Adjective Animal Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
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