Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge.
With an amped-up sense of wonder, the Science Guy surveys the natural universe.
Starting from first principles like the scientific method, Nye and his co-author marvel at the “Amazing Machine” that is the human body then go on to talk up animals, plants, evolution, physics and chemistry, the quantum realm, geophysics, and climate change. They next venture out into the solar system and beyond. Along with tallying select aspects and discoveries in each chapter, the authors gather up “Massively Important” central concepts, send shoutouts to underrecognized women scientists like oceanographer Marie Tharp, and slip in directions for homespun experiments and demonstrations. They also challenge readers to ponder still-unsolved scientific posers and intersperse rousing quotes from working scientists about how exciting and wide open their respective fields are. If a few of those fields, like the fungal kingdom, get short shrift (one spare paragraph notwithstanding), readers are urged often enough to go look things up for themselves to kindle a compensatory habit. Aside from posed photos of Nye and a few more of children (mostly presenting as White) doing science-y things, the full-color graphic and photographic images not only reflect the overall “get this!” tone but consistently enrich the flow of facts and reflections. “Our universe is a strange and surprising place,” Nye writes. “Stay curious.” Words to live by.
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge. (contributors, art credits, selected bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4676-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Fine browsing for space geeks.
A veteran astronaut weighs in on queries ranging from how the universe began to how to pee in a spacesuit.
The hundreds of questions are grouped in broadly topical chapters but otherwise arranged in no particular order. They cover an astronaut’s qualifications, training, and work; what it feels like to travel into space and to live there; the nature of the universe and our near-future prospects for exploring it. Jones draws on his experiences on four space shuttle flights between 1994 and 2001 for his answers, which are usually fairly lengthy, though he plainly leaves a few things out: if “NASA astronauts wait an average of five years between missions,” why were his so much closer together? Will he ever go to space again? “Not if I want to stay married.” Still, he often drills down to the nitty-gritty: what’s in the International Space Station’s tool kit? A long list, beginning with vise grips and including “a crowbar, a fiber optic boroscope, torque tip drivers.” He doesn’t trumpet personal opinions, but they can be found in lukewarm responses to questions about space camp and space tourism, as well as a cogent argument for continuing our exploration of the high frontier: “We will be struck again by an asteroid.” Plenty of small space photos and snapshots of the author and other astronauts at work and play are interspersed.
Fine browsing for space geeks. (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: March 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58834-537-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
The focus on gorillas in captivity rather than in the wild gives this an unusual slant, but the visuals will have more...
A portrait gallery of a small group of zoo gorillas, with a sociologist’s observations on each one’s distinctive behavior and personality.
The photos really steal the show. There are standard views of impossibly cute baby gorillas, of busy zoo workers, and of the enclosures at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo (where most of the primate cast resides). In addition and perhaps more importantly, a series of portraits—including “formal” head shots—capture not just individual facial features (as diverse as any group of humans) and an amazing range of expressions, but also a powerful, dignified presence in each of about two dozen primates. It’s good that the pictures are memorable, because with but rare exceptions, Nippert-Eng chooses to skip over the sorts of concrete details and incidents that would enliven her narrative in favor of unenlightening generalities: “Rollie spends a great deal of her time managing the troop’s social dynamics….” Mothers and offspring are separated due to unspecified “medical complications” or “serious medical reasons.” “It can be hard to predict what gorillas will do with what they find.” Readers left with questions (what are “gorilla biscuits” made of? Why are so many of the profiled apes’ siblings listed as “deceased”?) may find at least some answers in the extensive sets of annotated print, web, and film resources at the end.
The focus on gorillas in captivity rather than in the wild gives this an unusual slant, but the visuals will have more impact on young audiences than the narrative. (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-091-8
Page Count: 180
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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