A deliciously informative pasta primer.
Required background reading for spaghetti lovers everywhere.
There isn’t much about Italian-style spaghetti that Rush doesn’t toss into the pot. Writing in bouncy, enthusiastic prose and frequently pausing to ask probing questions, she describes just how durum wheat is grown, harvested, milled to semolina flour, turned to dough, and then cut, dried, and packaged; she also explores the physics behind the fact that an uncooked noodle will always break into three or more pieces. Along with spooning in a gallery of alternative pasta shapes like gnocchi and fregola, she explains the differences between spaghetti and other types of noodles, such as ramen, spätzle, and fideo. Then, for hands-on readers, she lays out step-by-step instructions for making and cooking spaghetti with tomato sauce from scratch; for science-minded youngsters, she includes an experiment that involves constructing a pasta “bridge” and testing its tensile strength. In the flat, simple illustrations, brown- or light-skinned hands reach into sight to show off wheat grains, knead dough, hold up a plateful of steaming goodness, and, at the end, point to a QR code from which newly certified “spaghetti scientists” can download their official diplomas. Bellissimo!
A deliciously informative pasta primer. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9783039641154
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Helvetiq
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
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
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
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