A wide-angled survey of the hot new field of “glacial archeology.” (timeline, resource list, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)
Recent revelations from our planet’s shrinking “cryosphere.”
Preserved in ice or permafrost like “the veggies in a kitchen freezer,” artifacts and bodies both human and animal are now being discovered at an increasingly rapid pace in many parts of the world. With particular attention to finds in northern Canada and, more broadly, the northern region known as Beringia, Eamer highlights their variety—from cave lion cubs, woolly mammoths, and rotting 2,400-year-old caribou poop to a moccasin “worn and lost 1300 years ago” and an entire passenger plane that went down in Alaska in 1952 but has only since 2012 begun emerging from a receding glacier. Many of these are both chance discoveries and ephemeral, but they offer unique information about ancient times and our own histories. For human remains she includes descriptions of Ötzi (the “Iceman”) and Scythian kurgan burials in the Altai Mountains among others but devotes particular attention to Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi, a 200- to 300-year-old Indigenous teen found in northern Canada with, according to DNA analysis, 17 living relatives. Shannon fills in the sparse assortment of photographed artifacts and bodies with rough, generic paintings, mostly reconstructions of prehistoric scenes or images of wildlife and of researchers at work. The rare human figures visible in the painted art are nearly all light-skinned.
A wide-angled survey of the hot new field of “glacial archeology.” (timeline, resource list, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77138-731-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
In this glossy photo essay, the author briefly recounts the study and exploration of the moon, beginning with Stonehenge and concluding with the 1998–99 unmanned probe, Lunar Prospector. Most of the dramatic photographs come from NASA and will introduce a new generation of space enthusiasts to the past missions of Project Mercury, Gemini, and most especially the moon missions, Apollo 1–17. There are plenty of photographs of various astronauts in space capsules, space suits, and walking on the moon. Sometimes photographs are superimposed one on another, making it difficult to read. For example, one photograph shows the command module Columbia as photographed from the lunar module and an insert shows the 15-layer space suit and gear Neil Armstrong would wear for moonwalking. That’s a lot to process on one page. Still, the awesome images of footprints on the moon, raising the American flag, and earthrise from the moon, cannot help but raise shivers. The author concludes with a timeline of exploration, Web sites, recommended books, and picture credits. For NASA memorabilia collectors, end papers show the Apollo space badges for missions 11–17. Useful for replacing aging space titles. (Nonfiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-57091-408-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
The cleanup, finger pointing, litigation and economic recovery are still ongoing, but this overview of the Deepwater Horizon disaster offers a short and coherent account of the spill itself, the well’s eventual capping and, in broad strokes, the immediate environmental impact. Noting that the initial explosion occurred the very night of a ceremony commending the crew’s safety record (but not going into the long tally of construction shortcuts that made that ceremony so disingenuous), Landau provides a linear nonjudgmental account of major events between the April 20 eruption and the announcement of a permanent plug on Sep. 19, 2010. Big color photos add views of the platform burning, ships cleaning up oil slicks, oil-soaked wildlife and damaged coastal areas, along with smaller murky pictures of the failed blowout preventer on the ocean floor and the replacement cap. Additional graphics provide clear views of the technology—the rig itself, a cross-section of the blowout preventer and the relief well in relation to the original well—and a map of the Gulf coastline shows the affected areas. Limited, out of date and entirely based on secondary sources as it is, this still presents younger audiences a slightly more complete picture than Mona Chiang’s Oil Spill Disaster (2000). Includes eco-activities, resource lists and a tally of other major spills. (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7613-7485-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
