Funny, chock-full of science, and wonderfully complicated—like its subject matter.
Rube Goldberg’s comics inspired contemporary designs.
Goldberg (1883-1970) imagined how ordinary objects might do extraordinary things. He channeled his ideas into comics, and along the way, the name Rube Goldberg became an adjective: “doing something simple in a very complicated way that is not necessary.” Take Goldberg's comic "Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin”—a man takes a spoonful of soup, which triggers a catapult that eventually leads to a scythe cutting a string, allowing a napkin to wipe the man’s mouth. Thimmesh’s narrative encapsulates this over-the-top spirit. Her opening two spreads, hilariously illustrated by McCloskey, offer brilliantly convoluted suggestions for reading this book. A biographical section on Goldberg follows, along with several spreads examining the ways contemporary people have built three-dimensional Goldberg contraptions. Having connected the past to the present, Thimmesh makes a more important point: “Beneath the whimsy lies the science.” Six simple machines that come up in Goldberg’s comics—the lever, the wheel and axle, the inclined plane, the wedge, the screw, and the pulley—each get their own page of explanation and comic treatment. Guidance on building a Rube Goldberg machine is followed by amusing, thoughtful tips. Balancing humor, creativity, and science, Thimmesh has crafted a work Goldberg himself would approve of. McCloskey’s exuberant cartoon illustrations make the science easy to grasp; human characters vary in skin tone.
Funny, chock-full of science, and wonderfully complicated—like its subject matter. (afterword, glossary, sources) (Informational picture book. 8-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781452144221
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
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