A brave but labored effort, too crude and piecemeal to do more than hint at this new tech’s potential.
An introduction to VR, with a cardboard viewer and five downloadable environments to sample.
Copious safety precautions and instructions—first for downloading the requisite smartphone app, then for assembling and using the viewer (incorporating said smartphone)—lead off this title. Following this, basic explanations of how virtual worlds are designed and rendered are interspersed with pages constructed around scannable links to 3-D views of dinosaurs, gladiators, volcanoes, pond life, and the International Space Station. In between these pages is further information on the technology behind VR and its uses. Users navigate the virtual worlds by physically turning their heads (or their whole bodies) and “pointing” their viewers at dots strewn about the vistas. Pausing at these marked points in each environment opens up alternate views or triggers a few lines of streaming informational snippets, read by an impersonal narrator; these reinforce without duplicating text on the equivalent printed pages but sometimes go off on tangents—with multiple mentions of toilets and waste on the ISS, for instance, and T. Rex coprolites (or, as the narrator mispronounces it, “corprolites”). The virtual worlds are modeled with decent realism but are so grainy that exploring them for more than a few minutes at a time (the precautions recommend 15, but even that may be pushing it) courts eyestrain. With but rare exceptions the human children and researchers in the photos are white.
A brave but labored effort, too crude and piecemeal to do more than hint at this new tech’s potential. (stickers, index) (Informational novelty. 10-12)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4654-6548-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
A litany of valid concerns, though too broad and generalized to be a mind changer.
An earnest, overly ambitious call to action laid over an omnium-gatherum of environmental issues affecting the British Columbian rain forest in particular and all of us in general.
Vernon shoehorns her narrative in among inspirational slogans, testimonials from rain-forest residents and environmental workers, case studies in local activism and small color photos of wildlife (particularly bears) and huge trees. She points in turn to depleted salmon runs, the forced relocation of native groups, clearcut logging, the hazards of sending huge oil tankers down nearby shipping lanes and the relentless overhunting of abalone, whales and sea otters. Looking further afield, she also calls attention to global warming, the toxic effects of mining Alberta’s oil sands and the danger of our “addiction” to oil, before closing with reports of successful nonviolent protests and a passionate plea to cut back, re-use and become involved in collective action. Though too general to serve as a nuts-and-bolts guide for young activists—and hard to read, thanks to the overcrowded page design—this adds another voice to the chorus warning that global disaster is on the way and sitting it out isn’t the smart option.
A litany of valid concerns, though too broad and generalized to be a mind changer. (glossary, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55469-303-0
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
The level of violence is unrealistically low, but these purposeful vignettes add a gauzy back story to what today’s children...
In six fictional episodes directly linked to paleontological artifacts, Weaver retraces the past 2.5 million years of “hominin” (pre)history.
Framed as a modern lad’s daydreams, her reconstructions open with the short life of the Australopithecine “Taung child” and end with a supposed seasonal ritual by a group of early modern Homo sapiens in what would become Europe some 26,000 years ago. In between they offer scenes in the daily lives (and deaths) of Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Neanderthal in future Africa and the Mideast. With paintings that resemble museum-diorama backgrounds—loose, but careful with natural detail—Celeskey tracks evolutionary changes in facial features, body types and clothing (or lack thereof). As the narrative progresses, the author inserts speculative but informed touchpoints in the development of names (“Roaank Awaagh” to “Moluk of the Wolf Clan”) and language, tools and culture. Explanatory afterwords elaborate on the evidence incorporated into each chapter.
The level of violence is unrealistically low, but these purposeful vignettes add a gauzy back story to what today’s children may have only seen as a few old chipped stones and fossil bones. (resource lists) (Creative nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8263-4442-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Univ. of New Mexico
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
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