A picture-book biography of the inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prizes fills a niche but oversimplifies somewhat in so doing. From his discovery that the volatility of nitroglycerin might be harnessed for use to the reading of the will in which he established the famous prizes, the brief account sketches in the basic details of Nobel’s adult life: his fondness for reading and writing, his tinkering with explosives, the factory blast that killed his brother Emil and four others and the premature obituary he read when his brother Ludvig’s death was misreported as his own. Throughout, Wargin depicts a melancholy but committed pacifist who hoped “his inventions would prevent war.” Pullen’s full-bleed paintings are at their best in Nobel’s workshop, their subject intent on the chemical task at hand. While the brevity of the narrative is appropriate for the audience, for whom little else on the subject is available, it glosses over the fact that he manufactured armaments as well as tools for mining and manufacturing—an unfortunate elision. (list of Nobel Peace Prize winners) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-58536-281-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2009
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Sharing books brings children from multiple backgrounds together in this companion to Stacey’s Extraordinary Words (2021).
Again lightly burnishing actual childhood memories, voting rights activist and former gubernatorial candidate Abrams recalls reaching out as a young book lover to Julie, a new Vietnamese classmate shy about reading in English. Choosing books to read and discuss together on weekly excursions to the school’s library, the two are soon joined by enough other children from Gambia, South Korea, and elsewhere that their beaming librarian, Mr. McCormick, who is dark-skinned, sets up an after-school club. Later, Julie adds some give and take to their friendship by helping Stacey overcome her own reluctance to join the other children on the playground. Though views of the library seen through a faint golden haze flecked with stars go a little over the top (school librarians may disagree), Thomas fills the space with animated, bright-eyed young faces clustering intimately together over books and rendered in various shades beneath a range of hairstyles and head coverings. The author underscores the diversity of the cast by slipping scattered comments in Spanish, Wolof, and other languages into the dialogue and, after extolling throughout the power of books and stories to make new friends as well as open imaginations to new experiences and identities, brings all of her themes together in an afterword capped by an excellent list of recommended picture books. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A worthy message delivered with a generous dose of inclusivity. (Picture-book memoir. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-327185-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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PERSPECTIVES
An outsized overview of animal types, senses, and common characteristics liberally endowed with flaps, pull-tabs, and like furbelows.
Della Malva’s realistically drawn animals crowd sturdy leaves large enough to feature life-size (or nearly so) images of the folded wings of a sea gull and a macaw, and Baumann fills the gaps between with meaty descriptive comments. On every page elements that lift, unfold, pop up, or spin aren’t just slapped on, but actively contribute to the presentation. On a “Birth and Growing” spread, for instance, each of six eggs from ostrich to platypus is a flap with an embryo beneath; a spinner presents a slideshow of a swallowtail’s life cycle from egg to adult; and no fewer than three attached booklets expand on the general topic using other species. Subsequent spreads cover animal sight, hearing, body coverings, grasping and touch, locomotion, and—centering on a startling gander down the pop-up maw of a wolf—eating. The animals and relevant body parts are all clearly labeled, and the text is pitched to serve equally well both casual browsers (“Even fish pee!”) and young zoologists seriously interested in the difference between “scales” and “scutes” or curious about the range of insect-mouth shapes.
Big and likely to draw a large audience both for its subject and the plethora of interactive doodads. (Informational novelty. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68464-281-6
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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