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THE SUNSET SWITCH

Name: THE SUNSET SWITCH
Author: Kathleen V. Kudlinski
ISBN: 1-55971-916-8

by Kathleen V. Kudlinski & illustrated by Lindy Burnett ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2005

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Diurnal animals and their nocturnal counterparts exchange places as the sun goes down in this murmurous essay in natural history. Kudlinski links each pair with its common food: “Good night, Goshawk. / Your daytime turn is over. / You searched the meadows for mice all day. / Fluff your fine feathers, and sleep. / Rise and shine, Screech Owl. / The moon is drifting up in the tree. / Flap your silent wings and go about your mouse search.” Burnett follows the author’s lead in shadowy paintings, placing each predator within a semicircular frame, and filling the margins beyond with the flora or fauna that occupy the food chain’s next step down. Despite a too-sudden transition from dusk to dawn at the end, this sleepy-time read is as informative as it is somniferous for young listeners. A good pairing with Deborah Lee Rose’s One Nighttime Sea: An Ocean Counting Rhyme (2003), illustrated by Steve Jenkins, or its alphabetic predecessor. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-8)

Pub Date: May 1, 2005

ISBN: 1-55971-916-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: NorthWord

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
BOY, WERE WE WRONG ABOUT THE HUMAN BODY!
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski ; illustrated by Debbie Tilley

- BOOK REVIEW
BOY, WERE WE WRONG ABOUT THE WEATHER!
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski ; illustrated by Sebastià Serra

- BOOK REVIEW
BOY, WERE WE WRONG ABOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM!
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski & illustrated by John Rocco

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ROX'S SECRET CODE

by Mara Lecocq & Nathan Archambault ; illustrated by Jessika von Innerebner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 2018

Informative, empowering, and fun.

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Girl power abounds in this book about coding that introduces young readers to the world of programming while offering them hands-on activities via a companion app.

In this title that was first introduced as a customizable, personalized print-on-demand product, Rox has a superpower. Using code, she programs toy robots that can do things like make broccoli disappear—or mischief. When Dad tells Rox to clean her room, she quickly thinks up a bot that will do it for her, writing code that instructs her bot to use artificial intelligence to sort objects by color and type. Though Rox knows that there’s a high potential for her creation to rebel, the perks outweigh any potential adverse effects. Rox’s robot has her room neat and tidy in no time—and then the entire home. Chorebot’s AI allows it to keep learning, and it seems Chorebot can do no wrong until the robot decides to rearrange the entire city (both buildings and people) by type, style, and gender. Chorebot goes “out of his artificial mind!” Rox must now stop her creation…without the assistance of the internet. The artwork, styled in the tradition of popular superhero series, is peppy and colorful, and it depicts Rox as an adorable black girl donning a black bomber jacket and a pink tutu. A companion app (not available for review) allows readers to create a bot of their own.

Informative, empowering, and fun. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-57687-899-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: POW!

Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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WATER

by Frank Asch & edited by Frank Asch ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1995

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``Water is dew. Water is ice and snow.'' No matter what form it takes, seldom has plain old water appeared so colorful as in this rainbow-hued look at rain, dew, snowflakes, clouds, rivers, floods, and seas. Asch celebrates water's many forms with a succinct text and lush paintings done in mostly in softly muted watercolors of aqua, green, rose, blue, and yellow. They look as if they were created with a wet-on-wet technique that makes every hue lightly bleed into its neighbor. Water appears as ribbons of color, one sliding into the other, while objects that are not (in readers' minds) specifically water-like—trees, rocks, roots—are similarly colored. Perhaps the author intends to show water is everything and everything is water, but the concept is not fully realized for this age group. The whole is charming, but more successful as art than science. Though catalogued as nonfiction, this title will be better off in the picture book section. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)