Solid writing preserves the natural rising suspense and astonishing details of this rescue.
Aronson sheds light on the intricate rescue of 12 soccer players and their coach who were stranded in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Thailand in June 2018.
Written efficiently as a time log, the narrative first explains that the Moo Pa, or Wild Boar, soccer team was composed of young boys with diverse ethnic and legal statuses in Thailand. The introduction of the team includes respectful explanations of the “stateless” or “undocumented” status of some of the players. Although they were exploring the Tham Luang cave during the dry season, unexpected rains trapped the boys in what quickly became one of the world’s top five most dangerous caves when it flooded. Because of the difficult diving conditions, expert cave divers from around the world quickly assembled to offer aid. However, rising water, the boys’ lack of diving skills, and forecasts of impending rain created dismal odds for a successful rescue. It took workers from several countries who momentarily dropped all barriers to pull off this incredible feat. Despite the concise narration, the gravity of the rescue is never dampened. Aronson is mindful in his descriptions of differences in cultures and takes care not to filter them through Western assumptions. He also includes a chapter openly describing gaps in his research and account due to key players’ personal or political biases. A list of the people involved and their respective organizations are provided as well as photos, a detailed index, and bibliography.
Solid writing preserves the natural rising suspense and astonishing details of this rescue. (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4413-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
Entomophobes will find all of this horrifyingly informative.
This junior edition of Stewart’s lurid 2011 portrait gallery of the same name (though much less gleeful subtitle) loses none of its capacity for leaving readers squicked-out.
The author drops a few entries, notably the one on insect sexual practices, and rearranges toned-down versions of the rest into roughly topical sections. Beginning with the same cogent observation—“We are seriously outnumbered”—she follows general practice in thrillers of this ilk by defining “bug” broadly enough to include all-too-detailed descriptions of the life cycles and revolting or deadly effects of scorpions and spiders, ticks, lice, and, in a chapter evocatively titled “The Enemy Within,” such internal guests as guinea worms and tapeworms. Mosquitoes, bedbugs, the ubiquitous “Filth Fly,” and like usual suspects mingle with more-exotic threats, from the tongue-eating louse and a “yak-killer hornet” (just imagine) to the aggressive screw-worm fly that, in one cited case, flew up a man’s nose and laid hundreds of eggs…that…hatched. Morrow-Cribbs’ close-up full-color drawings don’t offer the visceral thrills of the photos in, for instance, Rebecca L. Johnson’s Zombie Makers (2012) but are accurate and finely detailed enough to please even the fussiest young entomologists.
Entomophobes will find all of this horrifyingly informative. (index, glossary, resource lists) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61620-755-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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