Stimulating and encouraging.
Letters to the future left by a class in 1900 prompt sixth graders in 2025 to consider what their school might be like a century from now.
Drawn from a time capsule unearthed during building renovations, the letters celebrate innovations at the then-new school including indoor plumbing and large windows, marvel at such exciting recent inventions as automobiles and electric lights, and wonder whether the future will bring cures for all diseases. Meanwhile, the modern students discuss upcoming renovations, such as replacing the drafty old windows with weather-tight ones and adding both a rainwater collection system and a rooftop garden. The kids envision great things for 2125, including playground equipment that actually harvests kinetic energy, zero-fuel hover skateboards that use magnets, and extensive uses for leftover food and plastic. Into the bustling mix of monochrome missives from the past and graphic color posters and cartoon panels of the present and future, Fyvie slips nods to five actual “time capsules,” including the arctic Svalbard Global Seed Vault and the wreckage of the Titanic. The book closes with suggestions for readers inspired to create depositories of their own. Along with making lively connections from past to present to future, the modern students engage in ongoing classroom discussions of energy flow and storage, environmentally sustainable practices, and the need and benefits of recycling, all of which will prompt younger audiences to dream along similar lines.
Stimulating and encouraging. (glossary, resources, index) (Graphic nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781525306686
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This bittersweet tale takes readers into a dark, ancient woods in the American Northwest. A father and son make this forest their special place to commune with the wild, to visit with the creatures that live therein, and to revel in the mesmerizing views. One day they find spots painted on the trees, markings for loggers. The boy and his father and family ignite a small grassroots resistance to the felling of the trees. They fight for something they believe in—it is almost a sacred obligation for them—but they are unsuccessful: the laws governing private property prevail. The trees are cut and, luckily, the father and son find another stand in which to take solace. The Rands (A Home for Spooky, 1998, etc.) offer a bright fusion of the cautionary and the inspirational, and the artwork is effective in conveying the outsized majesty of the old growth. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5466-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
A picture book combines the exuberance of children and the drama found in nature for a sly lesson on power-sharing. Henderson (Newborn, 1999, etc.) lands on the wide reaches of a windy beach where young Jim expansively flings wide his arms and claims “All this is mine!” So it seems until the wind blows in a gale so violent that it smashes objects and tears “through the dreams of people sleeping.” An eerie series of black-and-white paintings shows the white-capped waves breaking ever higher and crashing inland; these are so frightening that Jim cries out to his mother, “The sea! It’s coming!” Happily enough, Jim and his mother are able to run up the hill to a grandmother’s house where they weather the storm safely. The next time Jim speaks to the wind, on a much quieter beach, he whispers, “All this is yours.” Large type, appealing pastel illustrations, and a dose of proper perspective on humankind’s power over nature make this book a fine choice for story hours as well as nature collections. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7636-0904-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
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