The importance of the STEM fields in our world cannot be overstated. But the importance of understanding early childhood...
Another board book attempts to communicate complex scientific ideas to very young children.
This book and its companions, all aimed at very young children, presume the intended audience is familiar with conventional symbols to convey information, as all the explanations are made visually by means of arrows that indicate airflow. It stretches the imagination to believe toddlers will follow explanations delivered that way. Even more baffling is the assumption that toddlers have in their vocabulary arsenal words such as “flow,” “angle,” “deflect,” “lift,” and “thrust.” Further complicating the attempt is the oversimplification necessary to communicate to youngsters. Boiling concepts down to such statements as “This ship is full of fuel. / If the fuel goes out, // the ship goes forward” perhaps ought to have indicated the futility of this particular effort. In companion General Relativity, there is a page with horizontal and vertical lines forming a grid. Many toddlers might identify this as a piece of mosquito netting, but they would be wrong, as it is in fact “flat space.” Later they will also find out that “Mass drags space.” And “Space drags mass.” The explanations in Newtonian Physics and Quantum Physics are no better. Adults wishing to introduce children to the laws of physics will be more effective—and have more fun—playing with blocks, making waves in the bathtub, and launching paper planes into the air.
The importance of the STEM fields in our world cannot be overstated. But the importance of understanding early childhood development when writing for preschoolers cannot be overstated either. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-5625-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
A toddler-level alternative to Leo Lionni’s classic Swimmy or Andy Mansfield and Henning Löhlein’s Fish Food (2015) that’s...
The title does duty as both theme and refrain in this simple introduction to food chains.
Rotated 90 degrees and read top to bottom, each spread opens with a simply rendered seascape, woodland, pine forest, or other natural setting in which sharp-eyed viewers are challenged to spot subtle signs of a set of predators and prey. The first such pair appears atop two accordion-creased gatefolds with the predator declaring the titular intention, “I will eat you!” on one side An identifying transition such as “said the caterpillar to the apple, but…” or “said the turtle to the algae, but…” appears on the other. The gatefolds open out to reveal two or three larger predators lined up to swoop in, presumably in turn repeating “I will eat you!”—but it leaves that secondary line marooned on the page unaltered. The natural tendency to reread it will likely cause both young viewers and adult readers to stumble. Who are all these new and unlabeled arrivals? Definitely not more caterpillars and apples. Moreover, when labels do finally show up on a pictorial cast list at the end, some are low-bar generalities such as “Little fish” or “Little bird" rather than specific names.
A toddler-level alternative to Leo Lionni’s classic Swimmy or Andy Mansfield and Henning Löhlein’s Fish Food (2015) that’s marred by flawed design. (Informational novelty. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4031-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Architecture really is for kids! This is a surprisingly informative and accessible concept book.
Think architecture isn’t for little ones? This informational board book distills architectural concepts into manageable pieces.
Throughout this well-organized text, short sentences clearly define various architectural terms, informing readers that “an architect plans a building.” Topics include architectural history, with illustrations of an early hut, the Egyptian pyramids, and the Colosseum; varieties of construction materials; and different architectural styles. Art and words smoothly blend to make information accessible but without talking down to child readers; a page with the text “Some buildings are made of stone” has a small image of interlocking stones above a medieval castle so readers can visualize how they form a wall. Larger, bolder type nicely emphasizes building-related words. The narrative collapses slightly when naming “classical” and “modern” styles along with a single example (the Taj Mahal for the former and the Sydney Opera House for the latter); it’s dubious if it will be enough information to be conceptually meaningful. Pleasant cartoon art in cheery colors and the technically precise buildings will draw readers, especially a single portrait-oriented page that captures the “fairy tale” ornateness of St. Basil’s Cathedral. The book ends with two children of color (all the humans are racially diverse) creating a blueprint for a block tower, followed by a sturdy flap revealing the towering structure, bringing it all back to a child’s level.
Architecture really is for kids! This is a surprisingly informative and accessible concept book. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-64880-2
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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