An insider’s view of exciting sites and finds, with prehistoric portraits aplenty to match.
Landmark discoveries in paleontology, from multibillion-year-old stromatolites to a woolly mammoth tooth no more ancient than the Egyptian pyramids.
After a general timeline and a rundown of the “big five” extinction events, paleontologist Moore covers the story of prehistoric life in roughly chronological single topic spreads. She focuses mainly on lesser known tales of discovery, such as the Precambrian fossils found by 19th-century schoolchildren in England’s Charnwood Forest, and also highlights spectacular finds at unusually rich sites like Angeac-Charente in France, where 73,000 specimens have been recovered, and Oregon’s Turtle Cove Assemblage. Thorns tucks an occasional light- or dark-skinned human figure in for scale but fills up most pages with an abundance of full-body animal portraits—not always to relative scale but rendered in lifelike poses and with reasonable, usually brightly colored naturalism. Readers curious about the deep history of microbes, plants, and fungi will have to look elsewhere, and our hominin story is limited to three skimpy spreads. Still, along with extinct stars like Titanoboa and Megalodon, special features such as a lineup comparing the very different original and modern concepts of what certain dinosaurs looked like and a gallery of wildly shaped and hued ceratopsian heads will please both fledgling and confirmed dinophiles. And the named and depicted paleontologists here include nearly as many women as men. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An insider’s view of exciting sites and finds, with prehistoric portraits aplenty to match. (index) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68449-254-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Neon Squid/Macmillan
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
A strong and honest homage to a remarkable woman.
In mid-19th-century America, Emily Warren’s desire to learn was considered an anomaly.
But she had the support of her family. Her older brother enrolled her in a school where she studied sciences, mathematics, history, and more. After graduation she married engineer Washington Roebling, who, with his father, John, faced the challenge of designing and building a suspension bridge to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn. During construction, John died as the result of an accident, and Washington developed caisson disease and was so disabled that he couldn’t walk or stand. He continued to oversee the project while Emily became its de facto engineer, learning along the way, directing workers on-site and winning their respect, and coping with every aspect of construction. She was certainly not an unsung heroine and was given the honor of being the first to cross the completed bridge. An unnamed modern woman of color introducing Emily’s spirit and determination to her child narrates the tale in accessible, conversational syntax, including her accomplishments in later life when she became a lawyer and wrote of equal rights for women. Nelson’s lively, colorful illustrations combine digital collage incorporating contemporary photos with cartoon drawings complete with imagined dialogue in speech balloons. Oddly, Emily (white, as are the Roeblings) is depicted throughout with a very red nose and heavily rouged cheeks.
A strong and honest homage to a remarkable woman. (additional facts, suggested reading, sources, author’s note) (Picture book/biography. 7-10)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77306-104-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What makes one person step into danger to help others? A question worthy of discussion, with this title as an admirable...
An extraordinary athlete was also an extraordinary hero.
Gino Bartali grew up in Florence, Italy, loving everything about riding bicycles. After years of studying them and years of endurance training, he won the 1938 Tour de France. His triumph was muted by the outbreak of World War II, during which Mussolini followed Hitler in the establishment of anti-Jewish laws. In the middle years of the conflict, Bartali was enlisted by a cardinal of the Italian church to help Jews by becoming a document courier. His skill as a cyclist and his fame helped him elude capture until 1944. When the war ended, he kept his clandestine efforts private and went on to win another Tour de France in 1948. The author’s afterword explains why his work was unknown. Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum, honored him as a Righteous Among the Nations in 2013. Bartali’s is a life well worth knowing and well worthy of esteem. Fedele’s illustrations in mostly dark hues will appeal to sports fans with their action-oriented scenes. Young readers of World War II stories will gain an understanding from the somber wartime pages.
What makes one person step into danger to help others? A question worthy of discussion, with this title as an admirable springboard. (photograph, select bibliography, source notes) (Picture book/biography. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68446-063-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Capstone Editions
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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