A captivating and well-researched deep dive into oceanography.
Explore the ocean with over a dozen oceanography professionals who use technology to further their scientific research and counter the effects of climate change.
Clearly organized chapters are divided into two sections, the first about the ocean’s physical properties and the second about marine animals, starting with microscopic phytoplankton and progressing to blue whales. The main text of each short chapter focuses on a research question currently being studied using technology. The engaging narration is augmented with easily digestible scientific information presented in callout boxes and profiles of professionals from around the world, many of them women, with primary source quotations that provide a glimpse of potential career paths and advice on how to gain experience at school and in the field. Throughout, readers are reminded that science and technology can help humans learn more about the ocean in order to make better choices to protect our planet. Visual context is provided through illustrated diagrams and color photographs showing professionals and their equipment in the field as well as images captured during expeditions. Most scientific terms are defined contextually and/or in the glossary. Written by an experienced and passionate STEM nonfiction author, technical specificity is deftly balanced with engaging writing in this title that is perfect for homework and leisure exploration.
A captivating and well-researched deep dive into oceanography. (glossary, source notes, further reading, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5415-5555-6
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
The Manhattan Project is a complex subject for a book for young readers, but Sullivan does a fine job of relating the fascinating story in clear and lively prose. The three-year Project was huge, secret and desperate, an all-out effort to beat the Nazis in the arms race. The people and places are now legendary: Oppenheimer, Los Alamos, Trinity, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Little Boy, Fat Man and Paul Tibbets. It’s a tale of brilliant scientists, shadowy spies, dreadful war, secret cities and secret lives. Despite the complicated history, this book is completely compelling, a straightforward narrative told with a light touch. Only toward the end does the voice falter, lapsing into a bit of editorializing. Still, the solid writing, attractive design, abundant photographs, suggestions for further reading that include works for young readers, websites and a glossary make this the best work on the subject for young readers. A great match with Ellen Klages’s novel The Green Glass Sea (2006). (appendix, chronology, source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: June 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1855-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
From 1600 to the 1800s, sugar drove the economies of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa and did more “to reshape the world than any ruler, empire, or war had ever done.” Millions of people were taken from Africa and enslaved to work the sugar plantations throughout the Caribbean, worked to death to supply the demand for sugar in Europe. Aronson and Budhos make a case for Africans as not just victims but “true global citizens….the heralds of [our] interconnected world,” and they explain how, ironically, the Age of Sugar became the Age of Freedom. Maps, photographs and archival illustrations, all with captions that are informative in their own right, richly complement the text, and superb documentation and an essay addressed to teachers round out the fascinating volume. Covering 10,000 years of history and ranging the world, the story is made personal by the authors’ own family stories, their passion for the subject and their conviction that young people are up to the challenge of complex, well-written narrative history. (timelines, Web guide to color images, acknowledgments, notes and sources, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-618-57492-6
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
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