Young combines arrays of charts, color photos and diagrams with descriptive captions, general comments, notes on technical gear and short interviews to explore the many ways all who travel on or in the ocean keep track of their courses and locations. Referring occasionally to five particular examples—a hatchling loggerhead turtle, a huge container ship, a sailboat, a shark and a nuclear sub, all in the Atlantic—she covers not only navigational methods, from echolocation to GPS systems, but a host of related topics as well, from currents and storms to deep-ocean dwellers, whale tracking, map-reading skills and the history of submarines. Though backgrounds on some pages make the text hard to read, young fans of all things nautical will happily immerse themselves in this seagoing omnium gatherum. (index, multimedia resource lists) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-009086-9
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Reports of children requesting rewrites of The Reluctant Dragon are rare at best, but this new version may be pleasing to young or adult readers less attuned to the pleasures of literary period pieces. Along with modernizing the language—“Hmf! This Beowulf fellow had a severe anger management problem”—DiTerlizzi dials down the original’s violence. The red-blooded Boy is transformed into a pacifistic bunny named Kenny, St. George is just George the badger, a retired knight who owns a bookstore, and there is no actual spearing (or, for that matter, references to the annoyed knight’s “Oriental language”) in the climactic show-fight with the friendly, crème-brulée-loving dragon Grahame. In look and spirit, the author’s finely detailed drawings of animals in human dress are more in the style of Lynn Munsinger than, for instance, Ernest Shepard or Michael Hague. They do, however, nicely reflect the bright, informal tone of the text. A readable, if denatured, rendition of a faded classic. (Fantasy. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4169-3977-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Pumpkin Book (32 pp.; $16.95; Sept. 15; 0-8234-1465-5): From seed to vine and blossom to table, Gibbons traces the growth cycle of everyone’s favorite autumn symbol—the pumpkin. Meticulous drawings detail the transformation of tiny seeds to the colorful gourds that appear at roadside stands and stores in the fall. Directions for planting a pumpkin patch, carving a jack-o’-lantern, and drying the seeds give young gardeners the instructions they need to grow and enjoy their own golden globes. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1465-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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