An honest, inspiring STEM-focused story starring an incredibly relatable future scientist.
A science fair can bring out the best in us…and the worst.
Miles Lewis, a smart aspiring scientist, considers this year’s science fair a second chance. Since his electrical switch didn’t get him to the regional competition last year, he vows to create a winner this year. When his teacher allows the students to work in groups, Miles chooses to work with Jada, but the team expands as their friends join. As they plan, Miles realizes how hard it can be to collaborate with others. It gets tougher when his cousin Cameron, who made it to the regional competition last year, visits and Miles’ team likes Cam’s scientific ideas more than his. Although Miles knows that Cam is adjusting to his parents’ separation, he struggles with jealousy of Cam. The team’s Marvelous Marble Grand Prix, a marble racetrack that illustrates how energy works, teaches Miles a lot about himself and how to be a better friend, cousin, and team member. This is a warm, inviting tale with a realistically flawed protagonist whom many readers will see themselves in. Miles’ close-knit family offers support throughout: Momma tells him not to be so hard on himself; Nana cooks and gardens with him; and Daddy, a professor who teaches Black history, exhorts him to persist—a strong message that will resonate with readers. Spencer’s illustrations depict a loving Black family whose members respect one another.
An honest, inspiring STEM-focused story starring an incredibly relatable future scientist. (facts about five Black scientists) (Chapter book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-38353-7
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Sweet art, cloying storyline.
Actor Andrews and her daughter Walton Hamilton pay tribute to the power of music.
The inhabitants of a small village are happy with “simple pleasures” until they commercialize to attract tourists…whereupon a dismal purple mist creeps in and thickens to the point that people stop visiting or even going outside. Then one day little Piccolino, who is helping his father dust the deserted opera house, plinks out a tune on the piano…and notices that the palms in the lobby look fresher. The brown-skinned pair proceed to gather wilting houseplants from all over town, park them in the auditorium seats, and call the orchestra members in for a concert. The plants flourish, the fog lifts, and throngs of villagers are drawn out into the streets by the music to dance and sing. Everyone realizes that “if they remained faithful to all that matters most, nothing could darken their days again.” In a closing note the authors state that they were inspired by an actual concert played in Barcelona in 2020 to an “audience” of plants—a piece of performance art more likely to stimulate discussion than this trite, sugary mess. The illustrations are one bright spot: MacKay places her gracefully posed, diverse figures in luminously hued scenes of narrow streets and neatly kept buildings perched on a steep hill and threaded with musical staves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sweet art, cloying storyline. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781419763199
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Produced to celebrate the National Park Service’s upcoming centenary, a breezy invitation to prospective travelers to “get...
A family road trip through several national parks transforms young Jane’s feelings about missing out on a summer of online fun with her friends.
“There’s absolutely nothing to see here,” Jane emails fretfully as her family drives through the scenic Smoky Mountains and canoes past alligators and manatees in the Everglades. But once her dad gets her to put the tablet away and look through a telescope at the night skies over Big Bend National Park, her attitude transforms: “OH WOW!” Soon she’s tiptoeing over the Grand Canyon’s Skywalk like an acrobat, playing pirate on a raft down the Colorado River, scouting out “Mountain lions, buffalo, and bears. Oh my!” in Yellowstone—and, discovering that she’s misplaced her electronic device, sending written postcards to her friends from Yosemite. Furthermore, once back home, what better way to debrief than a backyard cookout under the stars? Giving blonde Jane and the rest of her white family broad, pleasant features, Rogers sends them smiling and singing their way through a succession of natural wonders, with bears and bald eagles, footnotes (adult supervision required on the Skywalk, for instance), and only a few fellow, occasionally diverse tourists in the background. Endpaper maps track the long itinerary, and a (select) list of other national parks and sites in each state offers more destinations.
Produced to celebrate the National Park Service’s upcoming centenary, a breezy invitation to prospective travelers to “get out there!” (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-246835-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
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