This story of Thomas Moran’s bold adventure as part of Dr. Ferdinand Hayden’s 1871 exploratory expedition to Yellowstone chronicles his challenges in his first foray into the wilderness and briefly summarizes his resultant success as a painter. Judge gently but humorously acknowledges his inauspicious beginnings: Never having ridden a horse, he jury-rigged a pillow over his saddle, much to the amusement of Hayden and the rest of the team. Together with an adventuresome photographer, he scaled mountainsides to find exceptional sights to sketch and then bring to life on canvas—a feat that helped lead to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s first. Faux journal pages help to move the narrative along, accompanied by imagined field sketches. The author’s watercolors effectively capture the monumental landscapes, accommodating at the end a gorgeous reproduction of Moran’s colossal painting of the Yellowstone’s canyon. The author explains in a note that she read the journals of Moran and the others on the Yellowstone team and studied his sketches and paintings to bring verisimilitude to her account, then added some fictionalized conversations. Inspiring. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-670-01132-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
An introduction to gravity.
The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668936849
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
Spinning lively invented details around skimpy historical records, Taylor profiles the 19th-century chef credited with inventing the potato chip. Crum, thought to be of mixed Native-American and African-American ancestry, was a lover of the outdoors, who turned cooking skills learned from a French hunter into a kitchen job at an upscale resort in New York state. As the story goes, he fried up the first batch of chips in a fit of pique after a diner complained that his French fries were cut too thickly. Morrison’s schoolroom, kitchen and restaurant scenes seem a little more integrated than would have been likely in the 1850s, but his sinuous figures slide through them with exaggerated elegance, adding a theatrical energy as delicious as the snack food they celebrate. The author leaves Crum presiding over a restaurant (also integrated) of his own, closes with a note separating fact from fiction and also lists her sources. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-58430-255-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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