A stirring tribute to black excellence.
An accessible first look at a celebrated inventor in the black community.
Garrett Morgan has been credited with the invention of the traffic light but is often overlooked in favor of other famous black innovators, such as George Washington Carver and Charles R. Drew. Debut picture-book author DiCicco gives young readers a solid overview of Garrett Morgan’s wide-ranging versatility. The account of his humble beginnings as part of a Kentucky sharecropping family highlights how his circumstances led him to solve problems creatively. When he left for the North, he advanced his education with private tutoring. DiCicco uses affirmative vocabulary like “unstoppable” and “brave” to describe his resilience and determination in life—an attitude that led to his decision to marry a white woman before interracial marriages were federally legal. The bulk of the book is devoted to his invention of a piece of safety apparatus that ensured a supply of fresh air to firefighters before turning to the invention of the traffic light. The racism that he encountered along the way is not soft-pedaled. A detailed timeline and bibliography steer readers to resources that will enable them to further explore his life. Glenn supplies earth-toned paintings that give a sense of the period and evoke mid-20th-century Disney cartoons.
A stirring tribute to black excellence. (Picture book/biography. 7-11)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62014-564-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Thrilling reading for budding biologists.
Here’s blood in your eye.
Along with the ever popular hagfish (aka “snot eel”) and the horned lizard—which can indeed squirt blood from one or both eyes—Johnson (Zombie Makers: True Stories of Nature’s Undead, 2012, etc.) profiles 10 animals with particularly noxious defense mechanisms. Likewise introducing researchers who have helped to provide “the science behind the story,” she explains the nature of each defense and, in simple but specific language, the biology that makes it work. Large color photos feature a mix of portrait views and close-ups of relevant body parts, to which spatters of blood and dripping ichor on each page add melodramatic visual motifs. This is an outstanding way for readers to meet scientists at work in both field and lab, as well as to learn that, for instance, fulmar chicks can project vomit up to 6 feet and, creepily, that a school of the Amazonian two-spot astyanax will attack and eject one of its own to distract an approaching predator.
Thrilling reading for budding biologists. (source notes, multimedia resource lists) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: June 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4677-2109-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
Some children will dig in, but most will leave it unfinished.
The prominent cover image of a bulldog with a pool of puke at its feet will cause kids with a gag reflex to retch, while those into the gross will chortle with glee.
Unfortunately even the latter category will find this, a companion to Get the Scoop on Animal Poop (2012), to be an unsatisfactory stew. The table of contents seems to indicate a careful assemblage of digestible facts including “Toxic Puke Defense,” “Indigestible Puke,” “Baby Pukers” and so on. However, some comments seem incomplete or misleading, starting with one in the introduction: “You may think of puking as a bad thing: it makes your stomach hurt and smells gross. In the animal world, though, vomiting helps animals in many ways.” This seems to suggest that there is a difference between humans and animals and that humans do not benefit from vomiting, yet the reasons we do are covered in a later chapter. “Puke Defense” states that some animals defend themselves and their young with vomit. Cool, but inquisitive readers will not find a definite explanation: Do they spew on predators as a weapon or on themselves to become unsavory? “Cud Pukers” introduces the concept of a four-chamber stomach, yet the role of the second chamber is not covered, nor are chambers labeled on the diagram.
Some children will dig in, but most will leave it unfinished. (glossary, research source notes, further reading, indexes) (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62354-045-6
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Imagine Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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