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AWESOME 8

Name: AWESOME 8
Author: Jen Agresta
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2337-9

50 PICTURE-PACKED TOP 8 LISTS!

by Jen Agresta & Sarah Wassner Flynn ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 3, 2016

Unabashed edutainment, not deep but glossy as that iceberg’s surface.

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Shaved-down lists of, as the authors put it, “everything the world has to offer,” stocked with eye-widening photos and other embellishments.

Catering to patrons of the Limited-Attention–Span Theater, the authors drop 50 eight-item listicles—all bearing catchy titles like “Eight Ultimate Toilets,” “Eight Righteous Rock Formations,” or “Eight Fearless Foods”—in no particular order, inviting browsers at the outset to dive in anywhere. Human works and natural ones get roughly equal time. Each list fills a single double-page spread, with round- or rectangular-framed photographs of diverse size placed on brightly colored fill, interspersed with one- or two-sentence captions that really bring the fun. Ready to ride Dubai’s “Leap of Faith” water slide? “Climb to the top of a Maya temple replica, then drop 60 feet (18.3 m) before shooting through a clear tunnel in a lagoon stocked with sharks.” For occasional changes of pace, seven list items get expanded ganders on following pages, including, for instance, the “Sailing Stones” of Death Valley (“Eight Wackiest Weather Events”), “Rock Star” volcanologist John Stevenson (“Eight Extreme Occupations”), and, from “Eight Awesome Things in Antarctica,” a rare view of a flipped iceberg’s underside.

Unabashed edutainment, not deep but glossy as that iceberg’s surface. (index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)

Pub Date: May 3, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4263-2337-9

Page Count: 112

Publisher: National Geographic Kids

Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
JURASSIC SMARTS
by Jen Agresta & Stephanie Warren Drimmer

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THE BAREFOOT BOOKS WORLD ATLAS

by Nick Crane & illustrated by David Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2011

The balance between information and attractive bookmaking is always important, but atlases like the National Geographic...

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Retro-looking maps with pictures of animals, transport, famous landmarks and traditional dancers fill the pages of this mediocre atlas.

The text emphasizes environmental changes and sustainability, with proportionately less information on people. Organizationally, it starts with the oceans, including the two polar areas, and then explores the landmasses. Short, factoid-heavy paragraphs on physical features, climate and weather, natural resources, environment, wildlife and transport accompany each deeply colored map, and in the appropriate regional sections, a paragraph on people and places is added. Although the disproportionately sized pictures of landmarks, natural resources, generic people and miscellany on the maps are identified ("Omani man"; "bus"), too often they are not further explicated. Occasional fold-out pages and small, inserted “Did You Know?” booklets give the illusion of interactivity. Providing comparisons on carbon footprints (“a person in the UAE [United Arab Emirates] on average emits 15 times more than a person in China”) is vital information that seems at odds with the childish maps. A separate wall map (in the same style) is included. The woeful index includes only entries for country names, followed by their capitals.

The balance between information and attractive bookmaking is always important, but atlases like the National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers (2007) still remain the gold standard. This struggles to meet the bronze one. (glossary, index, sources; companion app not seen) (Reference. 9-11)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-84686-333-2

Page Count: 56

Publisher: Barefoot Books

Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
WORLD ATLAS
by Nick Crane & illustrated by David Dean & developed by TouchPress

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PUSS IN BOOTS

by Charles Perrault & retold by Stella Gurney & illustrated by Gerald Kelley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2011

This ageless trickster tale has a nicely subversive message, but this rendition lacks the panache to carry it off.

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A wooden retelling of Perrault’s classic tale, with underwhelming movable parts.

Gurney embellishes the original plotline only by furnishing the Ogre with a back story (provided in a very small pasted-in booklet) and bestowing names on the kingdom and most of the characters. Her prose stumbles (“Puss pondered over [sic] the problem of Peter’s livelihood”), and her dialogue runs to stilted lines like, “We have seen your idea of work, Peter—it is to sit around all day playing your harmonica and idling.” Illustrator Kelley does his best to add plenty of visual panache, crafting painted scenes featuring a swashbuckling ginger puss plainly akin to the scene stealer from Shrek and cleverly manipulating a Disney-esque human cast. Such movable additions as a turn-able water wheel, a pull tab that makes Puss lick his chops after devouring the ogre and even a culminating pop-up wedding tableau are, at best, routine, and they often feel like afterthoughts, enhancing neither the art nor the story.

This ageless trickster tale has a nicely subversive message, but this rendition lacks the panache to carry it off. (Pop-up fairy tale. 8-10)