Good fun, if less grist for young would-be Edisons than the earlier outing.
The author of Inventions That Could Have Changed the World but Didn’t (2015) mocks, or occasionally tips his hat to, a further set of outlandish contraptions.
Actually this is more of a spinoff, and an inferior one at that. Several of the same inventions stage encore appearances, Rhatigan’s descriptive comments are more cursory overall, and actual patent drawings have been dropped, leaving only cartoons that supply more yuks than insight into how the gadgets work. Still, some products, such as bird diapers marketed as “FlightSuits,” armpit air conditioners, and the 42-string “Pikasso” guitar built for Pat Metheny, have gone beyond the conceptual stage, and the author takes care to identify the creators of nearly everything here. Also, there are plenty of truly noodle-headed notions to chortle over (or abhor): a motorized baby carriage; a protective tongue sleeve for cat lickers; a frameless bicycle (“for people who needed more excitement and injuries in their lives”); and a baby onesie that’s also a floor mop. In her geometrically stylized illustrations, Aires at least visualizes each invention in action, and her wedge-shaped human figures come in all sorts of primary colors.
Good fun, if less grist for young would-be Edisons than the earlier outing. (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63322-294-6
Page Count: 113
Publisher: Walter Foster Jr.
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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
Thousands of years ago, the Komodo dragon may have inspired dragon legends in China and beyond. In more recent times, researchers from all over the world have traveled to the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia to study the Komodo dragon. This lively if somewhat haphazardly organized account focuses on the efforts of contemporary researchers, presents some of their cooler findings (female dragons can reproduce through parthenogenesis; their saliva is laced with deadly bacteria) and profiles a few captive specimens. Mostly color photographs from a variety of sources adorn almost every page, and captions add to the information. Learning about the Komodo dragon is not for the faint of heart, and the photos show the wild beasts in all their gory glory. The extensive backmatter includes brief facts about Indonesia, more information on the Komodo dragon life cycle and its use of smell and conservation information. A portion of the sales will be donated to the Komodo Survival Program. (bibliography, further reading, glossary, websites, index, author’s note) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59078-757-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
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