Informational and curriculum-friendly, a decent choice for fans of other STEAM-themed tales.
Twelve-year-old Raksha Kumar has a “fashion brain” and a “science brain.”
Her science-geek self has to complete a final project over the summer to earn a badge (and, potentially, a trip to Hawaii). With her Science Squad, a citizen-science organization for children, she must find bees that may be infected with parasites, collecting them and watching them for signs of infection. But her fashionista self wants to attend Junior Fashion Camp at the same time, which she believes is her “golden ticket, the way out of all nerd-dom and into being recognized as more than a future lab nut.” By the end of a whirlwind summer, biracial Raksha realizes that she doesn’t have to choose between her two passions—and that “no one cares” if she is “two different things. Indian and Chinese, fashion and science—everything can coexist peacefully.” Raksha tells her story in journal form, with the occasional crossed-out word or phrase adding zest, and she includes factual sidebars (“Honeybee queens are treated like babies, not royalty. Workers get to travel outside the hive, but queens stay inside, laying eggs”). Olbey’s black-and-white illustrations also offer readers additional ways to engage with the story’s science. They also, sadly, perpetuate the misinformation that feral honeybees live in wasps’ nests. This lead title for a new, middle-grade nature- and science-focused series features a mixed-race protagonist whose ethnicity isn’t the main thrust of the narrative. Companion title Hatchling Hero publishes simultaneously, recounting a young Latina's involvement in sea turtle rescue.
Informational and curriculum-friendly, a decent choice for fans of other STEAM-themed tales. (additional facts, glossary, bibliography) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63163-165-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Jolly Fish Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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