One of six glossy, readable titles, each focusing on environmental issues and concerns in one US region. Each discusses air quality, water pollution, land use, habitat destruction, polluters, and both public and private efforts to clean up the environment. While the whole is an impressive effort to make regional issues accessible, the series suffers from sloppy editing, including factual errors and quoting out of context, possibly introducing bias. Here, for example, Herda says that increased acidity in fresh-water supplies releases numerous heavy metals into the water and adds that ``these heavy metals are known to cause a wide variety of serious diseases—from kidney damage and cancer to Alzheimer's....'' No cause has yet been definitively established for Alzheimer's. Since most of the footnotes in all six titles come from just five sources, their biases and authority might usefully have been suggested: When a company chemist sounding off during the battle between Oregon's timber industry and conservationists is quoted as saying, ``Babies are replaceable!'' (see The Northwestern States), it would be good to be able to evaluate the veracity of the source. Still, a valuable introduction to environmental problems. ``Things You Can Do''; ``Hotline Numbers''; list of organizations; brief notes; bibliography; glossary; index. (Nonfiction. 10-14)l
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 1-878841-07-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
Remarking that ``nothing about the weather is very simple,'' Simon goes on to describe how the sun, atmosphere, earth's rotation, ground cover, altitude, pollution, and other factors influence it; briefly, he also tells how weather balloons gather information. Even for this outstanding author, it's a tough, complex topic, and he's not entirely successful in simplifying it; moreover, the import of the striking uncaptioned color photos here isn't always clear. One passage—``Cumulus clouds sometimes build up into towering masses called cumulus congestus, or swelling cumulus, which may turn into cumulonimbus clouds''—is superimposed on a blue-gray, cloud-covered landscape. But which kind of clouds are these? Another photo, in blue-black and white, shows what might be precipitation in the upper atmosphere, or rain falling on a darkened landscape, or...? Generally competent and certainly attractive, but not Simon's best. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-10546-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
A beautiful conservation story told in a rich setting and peopled with memorable characters.
Unlike the rest of her nature-obsessed family, Louisa wants to be a musician, not a biologist.
But when Louisa’s mother finds out that the Australian government is about to destroy the Tasmanian rainforest camp their family has managed for decades, she insists that Louisa leave Toronto and spend the summer on the strange, small island with her even stranger uncle Ruff. But when Uncle Ruff gives Louisa a copy of her great-grandmother’s journal, Louisa becomes fascinated with her family’s history of secretly protecting endangered species, including the mysterious Tasmanian tiger, widely regarded as extinct. With the help of her new friend and neighbor Colin—a boy who has autism spectrum disorder—Louisa deepens her connection with her family’s land, with history, and with her love of music. Kadarusman masterfully creates a lush, magical world where issues associated with conservation, neurodiversity, and history intersect in surprising and authentic ways. The book’s small cast of characters (principals seem all White) is well drawn and endearing. Crucially, the author acknowledges the original, Indigenous inhabitants of the land as experts, something rarely seen in books about environmental degradation. Louisa’s narratorial voice strikes the right balance of curiosity, timidity, and growing confidence, and her character’s transformation feels both incredibly natural and incredibly rewarding to behold.
A beautiful conservation story told in a rich setting and peopled with memorable characters. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77278-054-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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