For readers who live where stars are visible in the night sky, this will inspire a trip outside in every season; for those who live where pollution and ambient light make star-viewing difficult, the color photographs will provide a nearly satisfying substitute. While many sky guides show a hemisphere of sky with dozens of labeled constellations, much to the confusion of novice stargazers, this selects one prominent constellation for each month of the year. Clear directions are given for where and when to find the constellation in most latitudes. A full-color photograph of the night sky shows the constellation with each star carefully labeled. More experienced gazers will relish the informative text by Croswell, a Harvard-trained astronomer (Planet Quest, 1997, etc.). Croswell conveys his love of astronomy, and a profound sense of wonder, as he describes each star in the group and introduces many broader issues and concepts of astronomy. For example, looking at Taurus (the Bull) in the December sky, the viewer will notice the brighter of two stars in the bull’s right horn tip. That is El Nath, a blue star 130 light-years away. “It doesn't look special, but it marks a special direction: the Galactic anti-center, the point exactly opposite the center of our Galaxy, where we look out to the edge of the Milky Way’s disk of stars, some 30,000 light-years beyond El Nath.” The author concludes with a flow chart of how to find the planets in the night sky, a list of the brightest stars and where they appear, and an index. An inspiring and useful title. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-56397-757-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An impressive sequel.
Boy and fox follow separate paths in postwar rebuilding.
A year after Peter finds refuge with former soldier Vola, he prepares to leave to return to his childhood home. He plans to join the Junior Water Warriors, young people repurposing the machines and structures of war to reclaim reservoirs and rivers poisoned in the conflict, and then to set out on his own to live apart from others. At 13, Peter is competent and self-contained. Vola marvels at the construction of the floor of the cabin he’s built on her land, but the losses he’s sustained have left a mark. He imposes a penance on himself, reimagining the story of rescuing the orphaned kit Pax as one in which he follows his father’s counsel to kill the animal before he could form a connection. He thinks of his heart as having a stone inside it. Pax, meanwhile, has fathered three kits who claim his attention and devotion. Alternating chapters from the fox’s point of view demonstrate Pax’s care for his family—his mate, Bristle; her brother; and the three kits. Pax becomes especially attached to his daughter, who accompanies him on a journey that intersects with Peter’s and allows Peter to not only redeem his past, but imagine a future. This is a deftly nuanced look at the fragility and strength of the human heart. All the human characters read as White. Illustrations not seen.
An impressive sequel. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-293034-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Remarking that ``nothing about the weather is very simple,'' Simon goes on to describe how the sun, atmosphere, earth's rotation, ground cover, altitude, pollution, and other factors influence it; briefly, he also tells how weather balloons gather information. Even for this outstanding author, it's a tough, complex topic, and he's not entirely successful in simplifying it; moreover, the import of the striking uncaptioned color photos here isn't always clear. One passage—``Cumulus clouds sometimes build up into towering masses called cumulus congestus, or swelling cumulus, which may turn into cumulonimbus clouds''—is superimposed on a blue-gray, cloud-covered landscape. But which kind of clouds are these? Another photo, in blue-black and white, shows what might be precipitation in the upper atmosphere, or rain falling on a darkened landscape, or...? Generally competent and certainly attractive, but not Simon's best. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-10546-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
