by Ginjer L. Clarke ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2018
An uneven geographic offering.
An early-reader introduction to the Gobi Desert.
The expository text introduces the Gobi Desert as “one of the wildest habitats on Earth.” Words in boldface are included in a backmatter glossary, and accompanying photographs help provide context clues for these words and others that might be unfamiliar to newly fluent readers. After identifying the desert as “the largest desert in Asia and the fifth largest in the world,” the text moves through its five regions, highlighting predator-and-prey relationships between animals that live in this harsh environment. Although the title’s reference to “Life” might make some readers look for information about flora or human life in the Gobi Desert, the book does very little to cover these areas. Perhaps more problematic is the frequent misalignment between text and photographs, which often introduce animal life without depicting the scenarios the text describes. For example, one passage reads, “A wolf nears a herd of khulan. Bark! The males yell and kick at it,” and the photo shows the donkeylike animals running, but there is no wolf present in the image. Later, desertification is described as a threat to unpictured “nearby cities,” and then text passes the buck to child readers, asking them, “What will you do to make a difference?” after imploring them to study science. Talk about harsh!
An uneven geographic offering. (Informational early reader. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-8491-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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by Catherine Barr & Steve Williams ; illustrated by Amy Husband ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 6, 2017
Prospective space tourists should have no trouble finding a more reliable travel guide.
Barr and Williams present 13.8 billion years of cosmic history, from the Big Bang to the International Space Station and, possibly soon, flights beyond.
The co-authors write with the same enthusiasm and energy they showed in telling The Story of Life (2015) but with less regard for accuracy or internal logic. Following an inherently paradoxical opening claim that “Before the Big Bang there was….[n]o time,” they go on with a sweeping survey of the cosmos. It offers a picture of galaxies “sparkling silently” (wrong on both counts) in “bitterly cold” space (likewise wrong: space has no temperature), with incomplete references to the “freezing” atmospheres of our solar system’s other planets (Venus’ 462 C average temperature goes unmentioned) and the “cold, dusty moon” orbiting Earth (cold only on the side away from the sun). Two space-suited young explorers, one light-skinned, one dark, float through painted illustrations that progress from mighty explosions and swirling starscapes to closely packed planets, fleets of early spacecraft, a cloud of satellites, and, finally, space liners ferrying multicultural tour groups to an orbiting hotel, or maybe Mars.
Prospective space tourists should have no trouble finding a more reliable travel guide. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: April 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78603-003-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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by Melissa Rooney ; illustrated by Harry Pulver ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2017
A sketchy teaser in search of an audience.
A subatomic narrator describes how helium, a nonrenewable resource, is formed deep underground.
The very simple cartoon style of the illustrations suggests a breezier ride than the scientifically challenging content delivers. With much reliance on explanatory endnotes, Rooney sends her zippy narrator—newly freed from a popped balloon (see Eddie the Electron, 2015)—barreling its way past billions of nitrogen and oxygen atoms to the top of the atmosphere. Eddie describes how uranium and thorium trapped in the newly formed planet’s crust self-destructed to leave helium as a stable byproduct. Billions of tedious years later (“I thought I would die of pair annihilation!”) that helium was extracted for a wide variety of industrial uses. Following mentions of Einstein and how Eddie is mysteriously connected to other atoms “in a way that surpasses space and time,” the popeyed purple particle floats off with a plea to cut down on the party balloons to conserve a rare element. Younger readers may find this last notion easier to latch onto than the previous dose of physics, which is seriously marred both by the vague allusions and by Eddie’s identification as a helium atom rather than the free electron that his portrayals in the art, not to mention his moniker, indicate.
A sketchy teaser in search of an audience. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-944995-14-0
Page Count: 27
Publisher: Amberjack Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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