Stimulating career guidance for young STEM-winders.
A quick course in the skills and background knowledge an astronaut needs.
With the announcement that “You have been selected for astronaut training,” a narrator squires a diverse group of young cartoon figures past sets of small photos of real astronauts in training and larger cartoon views of space and spacecraft, all paired to short explanatory remarks. The course begins with a physical workout, a bit of Russian vocabulary (useful, since astronaut launches are all currently from a Russian base), and a ride on the infamous “Vomit Comet.” In no logical order later spreads introduce constellations and the solar system, take trainees on a trip to the moon, survey galaxies, discuss gravity, preview living and working aboard the ISS, and gather eight luminaries including Laika and Stephen Hawking into an astronautical “Hall of Fame.” The co-published Scientist in Training puts a similarly diverse group in lab coats and offers glimpses of what scientists study, with introductions to fossils, seasons, the water cycle, physical forces, habitats, the human body, and other STEM fields. Aside from a specious claim in the former volume that there “isn’t much gravity in space, so you will float” and in the latter, a slightly misleading claim that scientists “perform exploding experiments,” the informational load, though light, is on-target. Both volumes feature inset spinners on the cover, scattered games within, and multiple-choice review quizzes at the end.
Stimulating career guidance for young STEM-winders. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7534-7442-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Kingfisher
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A winning heads up for younger readers just becoming aware of the wider natural world.
An appeal to share concern for 12 familiar but threatened, endangered, or critically endangered animal species.
The subjects of Marino’s intimate, close-up portraits—fairly naturalistically rendered, though most are also smiling, glancing up at viewers through human eyes, and posed at rest with a cute youngling on lap or flank—steal the show. Still, Clinton’s accompanying tally of facts about each one’s habitat and daily routines, to which the title serves as an ongoing refrain, adds refreshingly unsentimental notes: “A single giraffe kick can kill a lion!”; “[S]hivers of whale sharks can sense a drop of blood if it’s in the water nearby, though they eat mainly plankton.” Along with tucking in collective nouns for each animal (some not likely to be found in major, or any, dictionaries: an “embarrassment” of giant pandas?), the author systematically cites geographical range, endangered status, and assumed reasons for that status, such as pollution, poaching, or environmental change. She also explains the specific meaning of “endangered” and some of its causes before closing with a set of doable activities (all uncontroversial aside from the suggestion to support and visit zoos) and a list of international animal days to celebrate.
A winning heads up for younger readers just becoming aware of the wider natural world. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51432-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Just the ticket for an armchair outing to the red planet.
Good news! Planet Marvelous is looking forward to visitors from Planet Awesome.
With the same exuberance that propelled readers deep into her Ocean! Waves for All (2020), illustrated by David Litchfield, and its three predecessors in the Our Universe series, McAnulty looks to the next planet out for a fresh set of enticing natural wonders. Billing itself a “party planet” (“I want to be the FIRST planet with human guests”), the russet raconteur trumpets its unique attractions. These range from moons Deimos and Phobos (“I know Earth is totally jealous”) to Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, which is “four times as deep as the Grand Canyon! And not nearly as crowded.” Sure, unlike Spirit, Opportunity, and other rovers, human visitors will have to pack their own water and oxygen in addition to traveling millions of miles…but given a few technological advances, soon enough it’ll be time to “get this party started!” Prospective tourists diverse of age and race are dancing already on Earth in a final scene in anticipation of a trip to our “reMARkable” neighbor. Quiz questions and a timeline cap an enticement that echoes Susanna Leonard Hill’s Mars’ First Friends: Come on Over, Rovers! (2020), illustrated by Elisa Paganelli, in its fizzy mix of fact and fancy. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Just the ticket for an armchair outing to the red planet. (sources) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-25688-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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