Even readers who don’t share Abby’s aversion to homework will be sucked in.
A girl who hates homework more than anything else in this universe creates an alternative one, with a few hints from her physicist dad.
Unable to escape her parents’ persistent reminders to get to work (they obviously know her well), Abby sneaks into her father’s study, follows his directions for creating a mini black hole (“Step 1. Choose anything you want to get rid of. Step 2. Squeeze it really, really hard”), and “POP!” turns her homework paper into a singularity. With the addition of some energy created by jumping up and down, the singularity becomes a baby universe complete with tiny stars and gas clouds. Abby almost leaps in, but when her understandably impressed dad admits that he wouldn’t know how to get her back, she decides to stay and instead joins both parents (who are now apparently willing to cut her some slack) in the yard for cuddles and stargazing. For budding astrophysicists, Zeltser tucks in simple descriptions of what black holes are and how they form, and Rubio ups the ante considerably with relevant equations from Hawking and Einstein on the study chalkboard. Topped by a wild nebula of red hair, Abby makes a moderately big bang all on her own (she and her parents are white), and chuckles will coalesce around her written explanation of what happened to her homework at the end, which is capped with her teacher’s inexplicably skeptical response.
Even readers who don’t share Abby’s aversion to homework will be sucked in. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5124-1798-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Nothing like a little body shaming to shape young readers’ career expectations.
An armored, lumbering ex-pirate cheerfully goes over the many reasons why he was “just fired.”
Like other failed job seekers in the Dinosaur Daydreams series, Gary Stego is seen—with prodigious lack of sensitivity—to be unsuited in several ways, largely physical, for his chosen occupation. Beginning with the fact that pirate gear and clothing (including, as the cartoon pictures make clear, underwear) don’t come in his size, he tallies his multiple failures. These include a clumsy spiked tail that leaves the sails in shreds, a mistaken notion of what the “poop deck” is, and an arithmetical inability to count looted coins. Moreover, his preference for salads over salt beef openly disgusts the racially mixed lot of children (mostly) that makes up the rest of the piratical crew in Calvert’s cartoon illustrations. Despite a “Pirate Glossary,” Troupe isn’t much for nautical language (Gary: “No matter where I stood, the ship nearly tipped over”), but he does identify the stego’s spiked tail as a thagomizer, and at the end he slips in some additional dino facts to go with a more conventional portrait of one of Gary’s prehistoric ancestors. What’s next for Gary? How about…brain surgeon? “After all, how hard could it be?”
Nothing like a little body shaming to shape young readers’ career expectations. (review and discussion questions) (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5158-2133-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
The visuals aren’t quite as crowd-pleasing as the text, but much of the content here will nonetheless stick with younger...
An elementary introduction to a slippery topic.
Using the word as often as possible, including at the end of every block of text, Prager exudes basic facts about a gallery of marine creatures. These include jellyfish (“Its whole body is see-through SLIME”), slugs, coral, vampire squid and the ever-popular hagfish—which responds to danger with “undersea goo! Lots of goo!” There are missteps: An unembellished mention of a squid’s “eight arms, and two tentacles” may leave readers floundering, and the author slides past mucus’ chemical components without a mention. Nevertheless, she does secrete a clear trail of information about how the icky ichor is used in nature for offense, defense, flotation and locomotion. Moreover, a closing section offers more detail on the substance’s varied properties, as well as other enrichment material and even an easy recipe. Aside from the all-too–close-up hagfish scene, Bersani’s illustrations don’t really capture a proper sense of slime’s ooey-gooey quality, but she does render marine scenes and creatures accurately.
The visuals aren’t quite as crowd-pleasing as the text, but much of the content here will nonetheless stick with younger audiences. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62855-210-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sylvan Dell
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
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