Solid gold.
An evil chemist’s oddly blocky fortress serves as the setting for a dream quest through the elements.
Well-prepared but afflicted with severe test anxiety, Mel falls asleep the night before a chemistry exam and finds herself in the Land of the Elements, helping blobby Hydrogen recover a book of spells, er, chemistry experiments snatched by the evil Elemancer. Traveling systematically through the Periodic Fortress from Alkali Metals to Noble Gases, she’s forced to draw on her knowledge of molecular processes and each group’s common characteristics to get past a series of elemental monsters—and, climactically, to face her fears as the sneering nemesis assaults her with pop-quiz questions: “How many elements are there?” “Is an element’s atomic number the same as its weight?” “What do you call it when matter changes from a solid to a gas?” Along with rooting for the young savant, readers will have challenges of their own to face, as Chad loads the script and art with information on atoms and atomic numbers, compounds versus mixtures, ionic and covalent bonding, isotopes, allotropes, radioactivity, the periodic table’s origins and organization, and how select elements of the 118 identified so far have been put to use. Mel, who like her comforting mom (the only other human figure) presents as Black, wakes up ready to tackle the ultimate test with new, and just possibly contagious, confidence in her preparation.
Solid gold. (table of elements, metric conversion chart, glossary, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781250767615
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A solid, soaring survey.
To unpack the equation “engineering = science + art,” a quartet of pontists survey and explain bridge design.
Taking a worldwide tour that goes from a fallen log across a stream in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park to the 164.8-kilometer-long Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge, the four guides point out salient features of dozens of bridges ancient and modern while pausing to explain loads and forces, analyze materials, give the nod to historical disasters like the Tay Bridge collapse (inviting young experimenters to test model bridges of their own), and, importantly, marvel at the beauty as well as the utility of well-designed, well-placed bridges. The cast is a diverse lot—ranging from Trudy, a light-skinned retired science teacher who zooms through the chapter on truss bridges on a tricycle, to Black-presenting fifth grader Spence, who hangs with suspension bridges—and their enthusiasm is so contagious that by the end readers willing to linger over Zettwoch’s exactly drawn structures will not only view bridges in their own locales with fresh appreciation, but have no trouble distinguishing a corbel arch from a Warren pony truss.
A solid, soaring survey. (glossary, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: July 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-21690-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Rich, wide-ranging reading for budding naturalists.
A California mountain lion struggles to weather the hazards of a human world.
Writing discursively, Yap begins with days when bounties were offered in California for large predators, then skips to the present to follow a puma mother as she teaches her cubs to hunt. Later, one is killed trying to cross a highway; the other, trapped and collared by naturalists, survives for several years on the periphery of settled territory, through wildfire and sickness caused by eating poisoned vermin, to reproduce and at last be found dead of unknown causes by hikers. Meanwhile, the crew of wildlife workers (which is racially diverse and includes one hijabi and one Sikh member) gradually features more prominently. They demonstrate various aspects of working with wildlife—from capturing and healing injured animals to educating pet and livestock owners, constructing safer road crossings, and promoting natural pest control. The tale is told in a mix of realistically drawn panels in pale, neutral colors and notebook pages of wildlife observations and facts; there are some mildly disturbing images of half-eaten prey and of animals caught in fences. If the language is occasionally stiff, readers will still come away knowing much more about how pumas live and how to live with them. They will also learn about other wild creatures—for example, beavers and migrating newts—and broad issues in wildlife management.
Rich, wide-ranging reading for budding naturalists. (endnotes) (Graphic nonfiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781634050586
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Reverberations Books/Chin Music Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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