Listen up, warns January in this arresting work: everyone is watching, and nothing is deleted for keeps.
Some sound advice: assume everything you do on the Internet is seen or collected by someone other than your intended audience, out of malice or opportunism, pure and simple.
Readers who pay any attention will finish January’s tour of Internet snooping with some measure of paranoia. His point is not to frighten but to inform, and he provides tips on how to avoid some of the more egregious snoops (easy-peasy: “switch from Google to DuckDuckGo”). He opens with a look at the history of privacy in the United States, how it has always seemed an inalienable right, and how it is enshrined in the Fourth Amendment regarding unreasonable searches. “But US judicial and legal systems have not kept pace with the quickly changing world of technology.” Namely, people will get away with any loophole until the law plugs the hole. January writes in a clear, frank style that also contains some artful foreboding. His examples of intrusive data collection touch everyone. Although the United States does not have such laws, the European Union requires Facebook to comply with requests for disclosure. On the other hand, some behavior seems conspicuously naïve. “Hackers stole nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities by breaking into their iCloud accounts.” Forget about diamonds; it’s digitized nude pictures that are forever.
Listen up, warns January in this arresting work: everyone is watching, and nothing is deleted for keeps. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4677-2517-0
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change.
Testa’s connection to and respect for nature compelled her to begin championing animal causes at the age of 10, and this desire to have an impact later propelled her to dedicate her life to fighting plastic pollution. Starting with the history of plastic and how it’s produced, Testa acknowledges the benefits of plastics for humanity but also the many ways it harms our planet. Instead of relying on recycling—which is both insufficient and ineffective—she urges readers to follow two additional R’s: “refuse” and “raise awareness.” Readers are encouraged to do their part, starting with small things like refusing to use plastic straws and water bottles and eventually working up to using their voices to influence business and policy change. In the process, she highlights other youth advocates working toward the same cause. Short chapters include personal examples, such as observations of plastic pollution in Mauritius, her maternal grandparents’ birthplace. Testa makes her case not only against plastic pollution, but also for the work she’s done, resulting in something of a college-admissions–essay tone. Nevertheless, the first-person accounts paired with science will have an impact on readers. Unfortunately, no sources are cited and the lack of backmatter is a missed opportunity.
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22333-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
The Manhattan Project is a complex subject for a book for young readers, but Sullivan does a fine job of relating the fascinating story in clear and lively prose. The three-year Project was huge, secret and desperate, an all-out effort to beat the Nazis in the arms race. The people and places are now legendary: Oppenheimer, Los Alamos, Trinity, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Little Boy, Fat Man and Paul Tibbets. It’s a tale of brilliant scientists, shadowy spies, dreadful war, secret cities and secret lives. Despite the complicated history, this book is completely compelling, a straightforward narrative told with a light touch. Only toward the end does the voice falter, lapsing into a bit of editorializing. Still, the solid writing, attractive design, abundant photographs, suggestions for further reading that include works for young readers, websites and a glossary make this the best work on the subject for young readers. A great match with Ellen Klages’s novel The Green Glass Sea (2006). (appendix, chronology, source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: June 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1855-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
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