Just the ticket for a burst of fannish appreciation.
A sweeping overview of how these versatile venues are designed, built, maintained, and put to a multiplicity of uses.
Following a general survey of stadiums old and new, from the Roman Colosseum and the Great Ball Court at Chichén Itzá to the L.A. Lakers’ Crypto.com Arena and others still in use, Eisinger takes a dive behind the scenes. Along the way, he intersperses select sidelights like the amount of food that can be consumed at a Major League Baseball All-Star Game with glimpses of typical modern stadium components, from skyboxes and giant scoreboards to concession areas and locker rooms. He mostly writes with contagious enthusiasm, but some passages read as if cut and pasted from a brochure: “Smart technologies help fans get connected for heightened engagement and provide venue staff with data to maintain system optimization.” Still, though Eisinger goes light on technical detail about structures or solutions, he does point out distinctive challenges in stadium design—such as the need for plumbing capable of coping with crowdsourced “super flushes.” Cheung’s painted illustrations offer overhead flybys of actual stadiums around the world and cutaway views populated with assorted multiracial groups of athletes, construction workers, performers, staff members, and customers—including cameos of Thomas Edison and Taylor Swift, as well as a nod to Lowell Perry, the first Black announcer to cover an NFL game (in 1966).
Just the ticket for a burst of fannish appreciation. (map, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781797218656
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
An introduction to gravity.
The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668936849
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
A lighthearted first look at an increasingly useful skill.
Grown-ups may not be the only audience for this simple explanation of how algorithms work.
Taking a confused-looking hipster parent firmly in hand, a child first points to all the computers around the house (“Pro Tip: When dealing with grown-ups, don’t jump into the complicated stuff too fast. Start with something they already know”). Next, the child leads the adult outside to make and follow step-by-step directions for getting to the park, deciding which playground equipment to use, and finally walking home. Along the way, concepts like conditionals and variables come into play in street maps and diagrams, and a literal bug stands in for the sort that programmers will inevitably need to find and solve. The lesson culminates in an actual sample of very simple code with labels that unpack each instruction…plus a pop quiz to lay out a decision tree for crossing the street, because if “your grown-up can explain it, that shows they understand it!” That goes for kids, too—and though Spiro doesn’t take the logical next step and furnish leads to actual manuals, young (and not so young) fledgling coders will find plenty of good ones around, such as Get Coding! (2017), published by Candlewick, or Rachel Ziter’s Coding From Scratch (2018).
A lighthearted first look at an increasingly useful skill. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781623543181
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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