Stimulating queries for bed, or any other, time.
Not-so-short answers to over 70 random questions about life and the universe.
Science is all about asking questions, Thomas writes, and most of those posed here are the sort that “are still bamboozling biologists, confusing chemists, and making physicists feel perplexed.” Some may seem to be no-brainers, but the answer to, for instance, “Are cats liquid or solid?” proves to be “both,” according to strict definitions of the two terms. “Why do we get only one birthday a year?” launches a lively discussion of astronomical cycles and birthday celebrations in ancient Rome. Topics range from soap bubble dynamics and the “speed of dark” to our “squidgy and flexible” human genome, and children won’t be the only readers surprised by some of the revelations dished up: No, we don’t actually know what gives airplanes lift, why plants are green, or why we yawn…and petrichor, the fresh smell of rain, actually comes from an oil called geosmin that’s exuded by soil microbes. An invitation to ponder the very nature of reality in response to “How do I know I’m not dreaming right now?” makes clear that the author doesn’t shy away from big questions, either. Most of the human figures in Cushley’s fanciful, stylized illustrations are children, and most are brown-skinned.
Stimulating queries for bed, or any other, time. (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781547613601
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
A stimulating outing to the furthest reaches of our knowledge, certain to inspire deep thoughts.
From a Caldecott and Sibert honoree, an invitation to take a mind-expanding journey from the surface of our planet to the furthest reaches of the observable cosmos.
Though Chin’s assumption that we are even capable of understanding the scope of the universe is quixotic at best, he does effectively lead viewers on a journey that captures a sense of its scale. Following the model of Kees Boeke’s classic Cosmic View: The Universe in Forty Jumps (1957), he starts with four 8-year-old sky watchers of average height (and different racial presentations). They peer into a telescope and then are comically startled by the sudden arrival of an ostrich that is twice as tall…and then a giraffe that is over twice as tall as that…and going onward and upward, with ellipses at each page turn connecting the stages, past our atmosphere and solar system to the cosmic web of galactic superclusters. As he goes, precisely drawn earthly figures and features in the expansive illustrations give way to ever smaller celestial bodies and finally to glimmering swirls of distant lights against gulfs of deep black before ultimately returning to his starting place. A closing recap adds smaller images and additional details. Accompanying the spare narrative, valuable side notes supply specific lengths or distances and define their units of measure, accurately explain astronomical phenomena, and close with the provocative observation that “the observable universe is centered on us, but we are not in the center of the entire universe.”
A stimulating outing to the furthest reaches of our knowledge, certain to inspire deep thoughts. (afterword, websites, further reading) (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4623-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Adequate science; inadequate art and plot.
A picture book that explains the physics of waves.
Red Kangaroo, the protagonist of this story and the one whose questions propel the flimsy plot, relaxes on a beach and ponders the surf, then decides to ask Dr. Chris whether “waves ever stop.” Dr. Chris, a lab-coated white man with pale skin and rosy cheeks, answers this question and all the others that Red Kangaroo poses about waves. Throughout the story, Dr. Chris teaches Red Kangaroo about wavelength, electromagnetic waves, the visible light spectrum, microwaves, X-rays, and more. Many of the key terms appear in boldface type, and in the extensive backmatter, the glossary offers definitions of all of the terms discussed. There’s also a quiz to help readers check their learning as well as several hands-on activities, with illustrations, to get kids experimenting with waves themselves. Much more instructional than entertaining, this book, like Let’s Fly a Plane, a simultaneously publishing companion in Ferrie’s Everyday Science Academy series, would be suitable additions to science lessons but not likely pleasure reading. Furthermore, the poor-quality illustrations, with repeated depictions of a lecturing Dr. Chris showing barely any variation from spread to spread—or book to book, for that matter—help explain concepts but add nothing aesthetically.
Adequate science; inadequate art and plot. (Informational picture book. 8-10 )Pub Date: June 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8058-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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