A stirring first-person account of “humanity’s greatest adventure” marred by distractingly unvarnished special effects.
The second man to walk on the moon tells his tale amid historical photos and pop-up spacecraft.
Aldrin offers a brief account of his astronautical career from a Gemini 12 spacewalk through Apollo 11’s splashdown, with overviews of other Gemini and Apollo missions, brief glances at some Soyuz missions, and a closing pep talk about future landings on Mars. Anecdotes, mostly about narrowly averted disasters (“We couldn’t get the pole more than a few inches onto the soil. I was afraid the flag would fall over with half a billion people watching!”), in the narrative and reminiscences by the astronaut’s daughter, Jan, on slide-out panels add immediacy to events that occurred half a century ago. Sheaves of photos and space art likewise make the experience vivid. The pop-ups incorporate some of the former but are inexpertly designed: The fronts of both a Gemini capsule and the spacesuit floating nearby are the same as the backs, major visible portions of the Eagle lander are just blank areas, and an abstract swirl that’s supposed to represent rocket exhaust at the base of a Saturn V lifting off doesn’t look like much of anything. Also, three of the five slide-out panels are blank on one side, and a multipiece punch-out standee of the Eagle is just laid in loose, sans sleeve or storage pocket.
A stirring first-person account of “humanity’s greatest adventure” marred by distractingly unvarnished special effects. (Informational pop-up. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4263-3249-4
Page Count: 16
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Ineffective and misleading.
This comic-book–like synthesis of the Aztec empire surveys the history and culture of one of the major civilizations of pre-Hispanic Mexico.
The book touches on religion, architecture, education, the arts, and the Spanish invasion. Information is presented in concise paragraphs accompanying illustrated panels. The snappy dialogue within the speech bubbles has a decidedly contemporary slant. However, from the introductory assertion that Mesoamerica is a region of Central America to the foldout timeline that indicates that Cortés landed in Central America rather than Mexico—which happens to be in North America—the credibility of the content is suspect. Imogen Greenberg describes the Aztecs as an “ancient people” despite the fact they were historical contemporaries of Henry VIII at the time of the conquest. The Olmecs were using chocolate by 1900 B.C.E., yet the back cover implies that the Aztecs “discovered” chocolate—over 3,000 years later. The primitive earth-tone digital graphics are either incongruous or anachronistic in many instances. Maya structures and Toltec pillars, which predate the Aztecs by centuries, are presented as examples of the Aztecs’ “amazing buildings.” Not only do they adorn the cover, they are scattered across a sandy, Egyptian-esque landscape that also includes the occasional saguaro instead of the region’s prickly pear cactus. The touted 500-year timeline hardly encompasses 200 years. And there is no pronunciation guide. Companion title The Ancient Greeks publishes simultaneously. Its timeline is said to stretch 3,000 years, including several events that occurred “Way back when,” but its recorded history spans but 200. Neither volume includes a bibliography or suggestions for further research.
Ineffective and misleading. (Graphic nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: June 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-84780-950-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Good fun, if less grist for young would-be Edisons than the earlier outing.
The author of Inventions That Could Have Changed the World but Didn’t (2015) mocks, or occasionally tips his hat to, a further set of outlandish contraptions.
Actually this is more of a spinoff, and an inferior one at that. Several of the same inventions stage encore appearances, Rhatigan’s descriptive comments are more cursory overall, and actual patent drawings have been dropped, leaving only cartoons that supply more yuks than insight into how the gadgets work. Still, some products, such as bird diapers marketed as “FlightSuits,” armpit air conditioners, and the 42-string “Pikasso” guitar built for Pat Metheny, have gone beyond the conceptual stage, and the author takes care to identify the creators of nearly everything here. Also, there are plenty of truly noodle-headed notions to chortle over (or abhor): a motorized baby carriage; a protective tongue sleeve for cat lickers; a frameless bicycle (“for people who needed more excitement and injuries in their lives”); and a baby onesie that’s also a floor mop. In her geometrically stylized illustrations, Aires at least visualizes each invention in action, and her wedge-shaped human figures come in all sorts of primary colors.
Good fun, if less grist for young would-be Edisons than the earlier outing. (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63322-294-6
Page Count: 113
Publisher: Walter Foster Jr.
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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