A salute as much to the spirit of curiosity as to one of its most surprising success stories.
Introducing the Hungarian inventor of the small handheld toy that has enthralled millions.
Beginning with her subject’s early interest as a solitary child in stacking things, folding paper, and solving puzzles, Sánchez Vegara traces young Ernő’s wandering career through art studies and on to teaching architecture. It was an interest in showing his students “how objects move and change shape” that prompted experiments in constructing the “strange and clever object” that made his name a household word. Readers curious about how Rubik’s Cubes are constructed will have to look elsewhere (or perhaps take one apart themselves), but after holding the inventor up as someone worthy of note (by “following his curiosity,” he found a way to share “the joy of solving, creating, and thinking in new ways” with the world), the author does supply some more specific biographical information at the end, with photos. The groups of big-headed cartoon figures in Javens’ illustrations are racially diverse, and later galleries of enthusiasts and young STEM-winders include one cuber in a wheelchair.
A salute as much to the spirit of curiosity as to one of its most surprising success stories. (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781805702863
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 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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