Left to wander on Mars after mission’s end, the lonely Curiosity rover makes some bizarre friends.
“Mission Control, don’t leave me here! There’s more to do….Hello?...Can you hear me?” Poor Curiosity, abandoned, has nothing to do but continue rolling over the sere landscape. Until, that is, he (explicitly gendered) falls into a crevasse, lands on a soft pile of leaves (!) and at last does find life on Mars—namely Sputnik (“Beeeeeep! Beeeep!”) and Laika the space dog (“Rufff! Ruff!”). Even readers obliging enough to roll with the story’s surreal elements (and unfamiliar with the real Laika’s ugly fate) will be left spinning their wheels by the garishly colored cartoon art. The rover, looking like a tearful mechanical turtle with clinical depression, may draw sympathy, but Sputnik resembles a spider with heavy, retro-style eyeglasses, and Laika is portrayed as a slobbery pooch in a space helmet with big, creepy, staring eyes. In the last scene, dog and satellite are seen playing Twister as their new playmate contentedly sits by, letting his radio batteries run down.
Ghastly. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62087-994-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Rhymed couplets convey the story of a girl who likes to build things but is shy about it. Neither the poetry nor Rosie’s projects always work well.
Rosie picks up trash and oddments where she finds them, stashing them in her attic room to work on at night. Once, she made a hat for her favorite zookeeper uncle to keep pythons away, and he laughed so hard that she never made anything publicly again. But when her great-great-aunt Rose comes to visit and reminds Rosie of her own past building airplanes, she expresses her regret that she still has not had the chance to fly. Great-great-aunt Rose is visibly modeled on Rosie the Riveter, the iconic, red-bandanna–wearing poster woman from World War II. Rosie decides to build a flying machine and does so (it’s a heli-o-cheese-copter), but it fails. She’s just about to swear off making stuff forever when Aunt Rose congratulates her on her failure; now she can go on to try again. Rosie wears her hair swooped over one eye (just like great-great-aunt Rose), and other figures have exaggerated hairdos, tiny feet and elongated or greatly rounded bodies. The detritus of Rosie’s collections is fascinating, from broken dolls and stuffed animals to nails, tools, pencils, old lamps and possibly an erector set. And cheddar-cheese spray.
Earnest and silly by turns, it doesn’t quite capture the attention or the imagination, although surely its heart is in the right place. (historical note) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0845-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Not every caterpillar gets the memo—or is, for that matter, temperamentally suited to spending two weeks immobilized in a chrysalis.
Seeing everyone headed up a tree (“We’re going to metamorphosize.” “Meta-WHAT-now?”) a clueless caterpillar hurries to follow. Despite the promise of a dazzling transformation, every step in the natural process, from spinning a chrysalis on, is an occasion for histrionic dismay (“It’s STILL Day 1?” “This is taking FOR-EV-ER!”). Gradually, though, the pop-eyed pupa’s kvetching quiets, the moans and groans turn to meditation (“Be one with the chrysalis”), and two weeks later: “I did it! I’m a BUTTERFLY!” Burach chronicles this miracle of nature in cartoon scenes as loud as the rapid patter, culminating in a migratory flight of butterflies and a final “ARE WE THERE YET?!” that hints at a character transformation that’s perhaps less complete than the physical one. It won’t be just adults chuckling at the interactions between the title character and its patiently pupating companions; all the characters speak in dialogue balloons, the protagonist’s green with purple text to match its chrysalis.
An object lesson in the value of patience as well as a droll introduction to meta-what-now. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-28941-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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