Misses the mark.
A reprise of the 2013 adult book of the same name, now for young readers.
When author Warren gets a German shepherd puppy, she wants a dog that will lie under her desk quietly as her former dog, the gentle Zev, did. So she is horrified to discover that puppy Solo is a “jackass”—a no-manners, bullying, uncontrollable bundle of energy. But Warren loves research, and her investigations lead her to a group of people who train dogs to sniff out missing dead people—a task it seems Solo’s personality traits are tailor-made for. Warren details the training she and Solo undergo to achieve certification, and she does a commendable job of conveying to readers the perseverance needed to achieve goals. The narrative flow isn’t seamless, though, containing odd, jerky segues. Additionally, despite the promise of the subtitle, the story is heavily focused on the use of dogs in law enforcement and war, which becomes both tedious and a downer. The machismo culture subtly filters into the narrative (“Teaching him to not be a wimp helped me not be a wimp”), which gives it all a dated feel. Sidebars offer occasional adjunct information, more or less successfully (DNA, physiology of smell), and there are plenty of black-and-white photos of dogs, trainers, and handlers (all the humans seem to be white). The lasting impression, however, is one of human aggression, not the dog’s amazing nose.
Misses the mark. (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-2814-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
Entomophobes will find all of this horrifyingly informative.
This junior edition of Stewart’s lurid 2011 portrait gallery of the same name (though much less gleeful subtitle) loses none of its capacity for leaving readers squicked-out.
The author drops a few entries, notably the one on insect sexual practices, and rearranges toned-down versions of the rest into roughly topical sections. Beginning with the same cogent observation—“We are seriously outnumbered”—she follows general practice in thrillers of this ilk by defining “bug” broadly enough to include all-too-detailed descriptions of the life cycles and revolting or deadly effects of scorpions and spiders, ticks, lice, and, in a chapter evocatively titled “The Enemy Within,” such internal guests as guinea worms and tapeworms. Mosquitoes, bedbugs, the ubiquitous “Filth Fly,” and like usual suspects mingle with more-exotic threats, from the tongue-eating louse and a “yak-killer hornet” (just imagine) to the aggressive screw-worm fly that, in one cited case, flew up a man’s nose and laid hundreds of eggs…that…hatched. Morrow-Cribbs’ close-up full-color drawings don’t offer the visceral thrills of the photos in, for instance, Rebecca L. Johnson’s Zombie Makers (2012) but are accurate and finely detailed enough to please even the fussiest young entomologists.
Entomophobes will find all of this horrifyingly informative. (index, glossary, resource lists) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61620-755-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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