A flurry of bright if sketchy lines, tuned more for budding historians than for musicologists or musicians.
A quick history of one of the world’s most popular musical instruments.
Playing to younger audiences and broad enough to include riffs on the Mesopotamian oud, central Asian tanbur, and the nyatiti—though placing the last generically in “Africa” and otherwise sticking to European and American settings—Houran traces the guitar’s development. Starting with prehistory, her account ends, perhaps prematurely, with the boost electric guitars gave to rock and roll in the 1950s, but that accords with her general theme about how solutions were sought and found in recent times for making the instrument loud enough to be heard in ensembles. Quarles opens with a racially diverse group of people (one in a hijab) listening to recorded music but continues with scenes of musicians who vary in terms of race, gender, and historical era actually playing guitars of various design before closing with an equally inclusive if perfunctory gallery of six “Guitar Greats,” from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Nancy Wilson. Young strummers will find a more thorough overview of guitar types as well as how the instruments are made and played in Patricia Lakin’s Guitar (2021), but here nods to inventors from Antonio de Torres Jurado to George Beauchamp as well as a labeled diagram of parts and a cutaway view of an acoustic body offer at least some specifics about how basic guitar design evolved. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A flurry of bright if sketchy lines, tuned more for budding historians than for musicologists or musicians. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66267-005-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
