A searching look beneath the surface for young perambulators.
Cross-section views of underground settlements and sites, from ancient tombs to the cities of humans and prairie dogs.
The creators of Walk This Wild World (2017) here literally take the low road, with stops on each continent except Antarctica. The tour begins with a panoramic look at the busy shopping level beneath the streets of Montreal and the subway beneath that, then goes on to similar views of London and Tokyo. Brewster also digs down to reveal underground warrens populated by leafcutter ants and other creatures, subterranean Berber homes in the Tunisian town of Matmata, elaborately decorated tombs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, a salt mine in Poland, an opal mine in Australia, and prehistoric fossils buried beneath Mongolia’s Flaming Cliffs. Each graphically tidy setting is rich in details, with human figures (fairly diverse of dress and skin color) and animals engaged in exploration, housekeeping, or other tasks. Baker’s identifying rhyme is the only text visible on each spread at first glance, which invites viewers to take in the overall scene at their leisure before lifting the multiple flaps to reveal illuminating descriptive and explanatory comments, along with fleshed-out versions of dino skeletons and like additional images. Despite a few liberties with scale, these subterranean sojourns will add a new level…or two…to readers’ worlds.
A searching look beneath the surface for young perambulators. (Informational novelty. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0856-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Big Picture/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Substandard nonfiction series fare, aimed at a slightly older audience than the publisher’s Kingfisher Young Knowledge entry...
This haphazard jumble of military, domestic, space, toy and industrial robots is unlikely to draw young technophiles for more than a quick once-over.
The design is dizzying: Crammed over and around pictures of robots in visually overstuffed mixes and even composites of photographic and photorealistic digital elements, scattered blocks of text in different point sizes extol the range of robotic capabilities. Robots that are actually functional now are not differentiated from those still in the experimental or concept stages, and the commentary is often misleading—“To communicate feelings, androids have mechanisms in their heads”—or too vague to be meaningful: “Robot animals move in the same way as real animals”; “The ultimate medical robots operate on human patients.” These and many other statements cry out for explanation and clarification. Some readers may find the pervasive focus on robots with cute features, from Sega’s “Dream Cat Venus” to a Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) that sports little ursine ears, off-putting, if not downright creepy. Furthermore, there are no source notes or leads to further information.
Substandard nonfiction series fare, aimed at a slightly older audience than the publisher’s Kingfisher Young Knowledge entry on the topic (2003) but a clean miss. (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: July 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7534-6816-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kingfisher
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cogent statistics and topic somewhat diluted by a simplistic presentation.
An exploration of our “water footprint” in infographics, with suggestions for reducing it.
Rows of water bottles or jugs give visual expression to the amount of fresh water consumed in various everyday activities or required to produce a series of common foods and other items. The numbers, all given in metric and English units, are startling: a disposable diaper requires 545 liters (or 144 gallons), for instance; a pair of jeans takes 7,600 liters (2,000 gallons); producing a smartphone consumes 910 liters (240 gallons); a single spaghetti noodle requires 1.85 liters (roughly a half gallon). Sources for these figures aren’t specified but presumably come from the technical reports that make up the bibliography. In any case, they speak for themselves—which is good, as the introductory narrative and accompanying commentary run to broad generalities (“In school, we learn that people in places like Africa do not have enough water”). The “Water-Saving Tips” at the end not only address adults and children indiscriminately, but even if rigorously adopted will result in, at best, minor local reductions in water use. A cast of white or light-skinned children add shiny faces to the bright, clean layouts.
Cogent statistics and topic somewhat diluted by a simplistic presentation. (index, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77085-819-0
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
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