At long last, a considered answer to the question on every third-grader’s lips—plus more lake-related facts and fancies.
Whittling 3,000 queries submitted by Canadian schoolchildren down to a few dozen, Thomas enlists a crew of experts to explain why water is wet, how fish can drown, the ecological impact of the “Rockin’ Duo” P (phosphates) and N (nitrates), fish sex and other life processes (“fish gotta pee”), whether lake monsters exist, and the effects of soap, candy, Red Bull, rubber tires, and other foreign substances on lake ecosystems. Ouseley shoehorns fanciful cartoon fish, birds, and animals onto pages crowded with splashy photos of divers, fish teeth, children (mostly light-skinned, where skin is visible), plus zebra mussels and other native or invasive flora and fauna. The author answers a final question—“What will the Great Lakes look like when we are grown up?”—with a cogent question of her own: “What choices will you make?” Leads to recommended websites or other resources for young eco-activists wouldn’t have gone amiss, but readers will likely be motivated to seek some out on their own.
Informed and respectful, if sometimes speculative, responses, even to silly questions. As to the titular one, it’s “and how!” (index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: July 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77085-728-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Is it a planet? A dwarf planet? What’s up with that mysterious body that, even in our best telescopes, floats tantalizingly at the edge of visibility?
Pairing a lighthearted narrative in a hand-lettered–style typeface with informally drawn cartoon illustrations, this lively tale of astronomical revelations begins with the search for “Planet X.” It then sweeps past Pluto’s first sighting by Clyde Tombaugh and its naming by 11-year-old Venetia Burney to the later discovery of more icy worlds—both in our solar system’s Kuiper belt and orbiting other stars. Meanwhile, sailing along with a smug expression, the mottled orange planetoid is “busy dancing with its moons. / Cha-cha / Cha-cha-cha” and Kuiper buddies as it waits for Earth’s astronomers to realize at last that it’s different from the other planets (“BINGO!”) and needs a new classification. Ceres inexplicably rates no entry in the gallery of dwarf planets, and the closing glossary isn’t exactly stellar (“World: Any object in space”), but fans of Basher’s postmodern science surveys will feel right at home with the buoyant mix of personification and hard fact.
A rare chance to shine for the former ninth planet. (photos and additional detail, “Note from the Museum,” suggested reading, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0423-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Conducted by a cat in a retro-futuristic space suit, this tour of the solar system and beyond earns style points for both its illustrations and its selection of “Factoroids.”
Diverging from the straight-line course such tours usually take, Professor Astro Cat begins with the Big Bang and the subsequent formation of stars and galaxies. In single-topic spreads, he then sails past the sun to present the Earth and moon, space travel from Apollo to the International Space Station, and the other planets in succession with their major moons and distinctive features. Going beyond the solar system, he explores constellations and telescopes and finally speculates in free-wheeling fashion about alien life and our future travels to other worlds. In blocky, mid-last-century–style cartoon pictures printed on rough paper, Astro Cat and his mouse sidekick point and comment as the smiling sun, cutaway views of spacecraft and satellites, heavenly bodies of many sorts and (toward the end) googly-eyed aliens sail past. Though claims that gas giants have a “surface” and that astronauts wear “armour to protect against flying space rocks” are, at best, misleading (and the text could have stood another round of copy editing), Astro Cat’s digestible bursts of information are generally accurate—and well-salted with memorable notes about, for instance, diamonds on Uranus or how dirty laundry on the water-poor ISS is consigned to fiery destruction in the atmosphere.
A lively jaunt over well-traveled territory. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-909263-079
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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