Nothing new here, but nothing that isn’t both feasible and necessary, either.
Boosterish advice for teens and preteens looking for ways to board the eco-wagon and bring along some friends.
Urging readers to “greenify” house, school, car, community and especially themselves, as well as spread the word to peers, ’rents and politicians, Petronis tallies many more than 47 general ways. These range in amount of effort required from bringing rather than buying lunch, plunking a full bottle into the toilet tank to cut down the flush and turning off the ignition before making out to organizing a clothing swap and applying for grants. The book’s thoroughness is to be praised: Kids are exhorted first to buy clothes made with "e-fibers" such as organic cotton, hang them dry instead of putting them in the dryer and then swap or resell them when it's time to move on. Parenthetical page references helpfully take readers to related topics. Though the author is more focused on providing ideas and inspiration than specific nuts and bolts, she does close with pages of source notes, plus a hefty annotated list of organizations with grant providers and sites aimed at teens marked by icons.
Nothing new here, but nothing that isn’t both feasible and necessary, either. (Nonfiction. 11-16)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9827322-1-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Zest/Orange Avenue
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
Required reading on a topic that can only grow in importance to readers who will be living that “social, political, and...
Opinionated, cogent perspectives on the role of fossil fuels in human history.
Following a doubtless accurate claim that controlling the supply of oil and finding substitutes for the stuff “will shape much of the social, political, and military history of the twenty-first century,” Marrin opens with a petro-centric tale of wars. These range from an Egyptian conflict in the 4th century BCE to the War on Terror (“really the war for oil in disguise,” he suggests) and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He also reviews the course of the Industrial Revolution (noting that automobiles were initially welcomed as being “cleaner, healthier, and safer” than horses), then goes on to analyze the hazards of our oil dependence, recap major oil spills and consider both the benefits and dangers of alternative energy sources. Well-surveyed territory this all may be, but the author’s beneficent portrait of John D. Rockefeller, his references to British “terrorism” in the Middle East and other heterodox views give it distinctive angles. Moreover, the urgency of his message that something has to change comes through clearly.
Required reading on a topic that can only grow in importance to readers who will be living that “social, political, and military history.” (endnotes, index, black-and-white photos) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-375-86673-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
A serviceable introduction both to this CSI-related field and to the relevant human anatomy.
How does science work to identify corpses of the unknown?
Murray’s compact, textbook look at the basics of forensic anthropology provides comprehensible introductions to individually unique anatomical and physiological characteristics and to the timetable for the decay or decomposition of each. Eight “case files” are presented to provide a story to illustrate the techniques of post-mortem identification in practical contexts and to provide human interest to accompany the straightforward text. Unsurprisingly gruesome, each involves the discovery of a body (or in one, the separate limbs and severed head of a young woman) of an unknown person whose identification is challenged by decomposition. Three main chapters look at current forensic technology from the outside in—the first describes skin, hair, scars, tattoos, fingerprints and their reconstruction, while the second provides a look at how bones, teeth and implants provide structural identification. Murray describes the gold standard of identification—nuclear DNA profiling—in the last chapter with satisfyingly clear instruction in the essential features of forensic DNA. About 20 percent of the text is printed in white on a dark background, including all of the case-file narratives. File photos are used throughout to illustrate the points being made.
A serviceable introduction both to this CSI-related field and to the relevant human anatomy. (index, bibliography, sources for more information) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7613-6696-6
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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