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A FOR ANTARCTICA

Name: A FOR ANTARCTICA
Author: Jonathan Chester
ISBN: 1-883672-24-4

by Jonathan Chester & photographed by Jonathan Chester ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 1995

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A pastiche of full-color photographs, some quite wonderful, that do not make a coherent alphabetical listing. Captions are far above reading and comprehension levels of the usual ABC audience, but older children will be frustrated by the entries' terseness and will come away with unanswered questions, i.e., Why does the midsummer sky stay light for 24 hours a day? On the ``Cc'' page alone: What is the man doing on the ladder spanning the crevasse? What is the magnetic pole? How does a ``sun compass'' work? Why are the Antarctic ``oases'' permanently free of snow and ice? The caption for a rocky peak projecting above the icecap, a ``nunatak,'' identifies this as an Inuit name, which, without explanation, implies that Inuit inhabit the Antarctic. A few of the pictures are inadequate, as well; the Hourglass Dolphin, photographed from above the water surface, is a vague shape; the picture labelled ``Fossils'' shows a man searching a rocky slope. There are no maps to help place the locales and geographic features mentioned. Recommended only for those in need of pictorial material on this region. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-10)

Pub Date: April 21, 1995

ISBN: 1-883672-24-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tricycle

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
SPLASH!
by Kirsty Melville & illustrated by Jonathan Chester

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THE GREEDY TRIANGLE

by Marilyn Burns & illustrated by Gordon Silveria ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1995

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Here is a basic lesson in geometrical shapes disguised as entertainment. It aspires to nothing more, and just barely succeeds on its own modest level. The premise is that a busy triangle gets tired of its life and goes to a shapeshifter for an extra angle. Life as a quadrilateral is exciting for a while, but soon the protagonist requires another angle, and—the etceteras take readers through the final two-thirds of the story. Burns (The I Hate Mathematics! Book, Little, 1975, etc.) is wise enough to summarize everything past the hexagon stage. Notes on mathematics for adults working with children appear in the final pages. Newcomer Silveria takes the obvious approach to the illustrator's quandary—how to humanize an abstraction—by adding cute oval eyes and chubby cheeks. His creation comes off like a candidate for the Olympic mascot tryouts; he has a good color sense, and goes full throttle on every page. This installment of the ``Marilyn Burns Brainy Day'' series is static, simplistic, and too long by half—but finding fault with it as a work of art is like looking for character development in a Barney episode. (Picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-590-48991-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

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MATH CURSE

by Jon Scieszka & illustrated by Lane Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1995

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An unsuspecting student falls victim to the Math Curse when her teacher notes that ``You can think of almost everything as a math problem.'' Suddenly, everything is: ``I wake up at 7:15. It takes me 10 minutes to get dressed, 15 minutes to eat my breakfast, and 1 minute to brush my teeth . . . if my bus leaves at 8:00, will I make it on time?'' If it's not a time problem, it's equivalents (``How many inches in a foot?''), multiplication, nondecimal numbers, money combinations, and more. What's the cure? It comes to her in a dream: A problem with an answer is no problem at all. Smith's big paintings-cum-collage are, as usual, way strange, perfectly complementing the wild, postmodern page design with concatenations of small objects, fragments, and geometric shapes and figures, all placed on dark, grainy backgrounds. Another calculated triumph from the fevered brows that brought forth The Stinky Cheese Man (1992) and other instant classics, this one with a bit of brainwork deftly woven in. Readers can check their answers on the back cover. (Picture book. 7-9)