An engrossing portrayal of “a bold, complicated, dangerous, and expensive adventure,” at once broad in scope and rich in...
A frank account of our early space program’s ups and downs, with 21 low-tech, hands-on activities.
Readers old enough to be drawn in to Pohlen’s mission-by-mission accounts of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs will likely find the interspersed projects—which range from making a balloon-powered rocket that runs along a string to chucking pebbles into a bowl of light and dark powders to create “craters”—laughably rudimentary. Fortunately, the author’s picture of the brilliant if too-often-slapdash effort that ultimately sent 24 men to the moon and brought them all back is compelling enough to survive distractions. Along with taking due note of the thousands of people, not all of them white or male, who labored to solve the program’s massive technological and logistical challenges, he humanizes the astronauts with frequent references to their families. Plenty of period photos, accounts of memorable incidents en route (“On the mission’s first day, Frank Borman vomited in the equipment bay. Lovell watched a chunky blob the size of a tennis ball float up”), exuberant quotes from mission transcripts (Pete Conrad: “Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me!”), and glimpses of their post-Apollo pursuits further this effect as well.
An engrossing portrayal of “a bold, complicated, dangerous, and expensive adventure,” at once broad in scope and rich in specific details. (index, glossary, endnotes, multimedia resources) (Nonfiction. 11-13)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-912777-17-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
An introduction to ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings. The authors begin with how archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut, then move back 3,000 years to the time of Thutmosis I, who built the first tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Finally they describe the building of the tomb of a later Pharaoh, Ramses II. The backward-forward narration is not always easy to follow, and the authors attribute emotions to the Pharaohs without citation. For example, “Thutmosis III was furious [with Hatshepsut]. He was especially annoyed that she planned to be buried in KV 20, the tomb of her father.” Since both these people lived 3,500 years ago, speculation on who was furious or annoyed should be used with extreme caution. And the tangled intrigue of Egyptian royalty is not easily sorted out in so brief a work. Throughout, though, there are spectacular photographs of ancient Egyptian artifacts, monuments, tomb paintings, jewels, and death masks that will appeal to young viewers. The photographs of the exposed mummies of Ramses II, King Tut, and Seti I are compelling. More useful for the hauntingly beautiful photos than the text. (brief bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7922-7223-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bial (A Handful of Dirt, p. 299, etc.) conjures up ghostly images of the Wild West with atmospheric photos of weathered clapboard and a tally of evocative names: Tombstone, Deadwood, Goldfield, Progress, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, the OK Corral. Tracing the life cycle of the estimated 30,000 ghost towns (nearly 1300 in Utah alone), he captures some echo of their bustling, rough-and-tumble past with passages from contemporary observers like Mark Twain: “If a man wanted a fight on his hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was appear in public in a white shirt or stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated.” Among shots of run-down mining works, dusty, deserted streets, and dark eaves silhouetted against evening skies, Bial intersperses 19th-century photos and prints for contrast, plus an occasional portrait of a grizzled modern resident. He suggests another sort of resident too: “At night that plaintive hoo-hoo may be an owl nesting in a nearby saguaro cactus—or the moaning of a restless ghost up in the graveyard.” Children seeking a sense of this partly mythic time and place in American history, or just a delicious shiver, will linger over his tribute. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-06557-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
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