This well-designed odyssey truly does put the universe at viewers’ fingertips.
A “powers of 10” app that takes young explorers from quarks to the furthest reaches of the observable universe.
An aptly named dog flopped down in a sunny backyard provides the starting point. Each flick of thumb and finger magnifies the view of canine hide by a factor of 10, down to 10-18, and each pinch will pull the image up and out one step. Finally, at 1027, only a gauzy film of galactic superclusters is visible. Though a “handwritten” text font and Woodruff’s simply drawn cartoon illustrations (several featuring a drifting virus or other small animation) give the presentation an informal look, there is plenty of hard information here. This information includes the number and kinds of quarks in a proton as well as descriptions of the mysterious galactic “Great Wall” and even more immense “Sloan Great Wall.” The brief commentary appearing beside each view offers quick, specific facts strewn with playful interjections—“Kuiper Belt (rhymes with diaper)”—and true-or-false questions that are sometimes tricky, like “True or False: Viruses are alive.” There are enough typos to make an update desirable, but overall it's an inventive and provocative exercise.
This well-designed odyssey truly does put the universe at viewers’ fingertips. (iPad informational app. 6-12)Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: You University Apps
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Will and his little brother Steve face third grade and kindergarten in this over-the-top chapter book in the venerable Step-Into-Reading series for new readers. Will knows that going to the same school as his brother is going to be a challenge, but he does not know how much of a challenge it will be. From the moment Will has to hold Steve’s hand and take him to kindergarten, everything that can go wrong does. Whether Steve is slamming all the lockers, making faces through the third-grade window or starting a food fight in the cafeteria, he’s embarrassing his older brother. Expressive and stylized color illustrations add to the exaggerated plot lines. A comfortable, predictable ending on the bench outside of the principal’s office will make new readers everywhere smile with recognition. No one will mistake this for a lesson book about back to school, but new readers will find many reasons to laugh out loud with Will and Steve. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: July 10, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-375-83904-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2007
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