A well-intentioned photographic journey into healthy eating.
In this nonfiction kids’ book, Du (Bernard Goes to Music School, 2016, etc.) looks at the importance of nutrition from the perspective of her young son, Bernard.
After struggling to conceive for six years, the author says that she achieved “her baby dream” after consulting a book extolling nutritious eating habits. Here, Bernard appears in color photos with various dishes and explains how his mother’s culinary enthusiasm shapes his life. He recalls eating traditional Chinese food with grandparents and his mom’s reaction when he asked for a McDonald’s Happy Meal. Eating healthily, he surmises, makes him smart, because he can “tell all the big names of dinosaurs.” “Healthy eating rules” (such as “salt, sugars, and unhealthy fats are bad”) are in bold text. In an afterword, the author offers insights into cooking methods and the potential dangers of eating seafood. Du’s knowledge of nutrition is laudable, and the photos are engaging. However, Bernard’s vocabulary may be overly sophisticated for young children, as when he says that he listens to his mother “silently and ardently as her words strike my heart.” The details of Bernard’s life story also detract from the nutritional focus. This book would be best suited as a keepsake for Bernard’s loved ones or as an educational supplement for a parenting class.
A well-intentioned photographic journey into healthy eating.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-978367-26-5
Page Count: 50
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lovely encouragement to young writers to persist.
This follow-up to How To Read a Story (2005) shows a child going through the steps of creating a story, from choosing an idea through sharing with friends.
A young black child lies in a grassy field writing in a journal, working on “Step 1 / Search for an Idea— / a shiny one.” During a walk to the library, various ideas float in colorful thought bubbles, with exclamation points: “playing soccer! / dogs!” Inside the library, less-distinct ideas, expressed as shapes and pictures, with question marks, float about as the writer collects ideas to choose from. The young writer must then choose a setting, a main character, and a problem for that protagonist. Plotting, writing with detail, and revising are described in child-friendly terms and shown visually, in the form of lists and notes on faux pieces of paper. Finally, the writer sits in the same field, in a new season, sharing the story with friends. The illustrations feature the child’s writing and drawing as well as images of imagined events from the book in progress bursting off the page. The child’s main character is an adventurous mermaid who looks just like the child, complete with afro-puff pigtails, representing an affirming message about writing oneself into the world. The child’s family, depicted as black, moves in the background of the setting, which is also populated by a multiracial cast.
A lovely encouragement to young writers to persist. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5666-8
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.
The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.
Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-55-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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