An almost savory assemblage that’s spoiled by too many stale ingredients.
A view of our planet and our place on it in terms of the four classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water.
It’s not a very strong conceit—showing strain almost immediately as the “Earth” section begins with the observation that 30 percent of our “rocky” home is actually oxygen—but for each of the four elements the author offers 29 double-page–spread introductions to a wide array of at least indirectly related topics. These range from surveys of the Earth’s hot interior and changing surface to the origins of life and of such technological wonders as cast-iron stoves as well as the golden ages both of exploration and of piracy, types of waterfalls, major historical fires, and what it might be like to live underwater. The authors add crunchy bits to this browser’s banquet by giving Gustav Whitehead pride of place over the Wright brothers as the first to fly, including the recently discovered Hamza (which flows more than two miles beneath the Amazon) in their tally of big rivers, and other surprises. Still, along with underseasoned elements including a reference to “the freezing part of the outer solar system” and a timeline point quaintly labeled “Man evolves,” Brake’s claim that in the wake of Columbus “people who’d never met due to being separated by the seas could now interact just as we all do today!” introduces, to say the least, a historically disingenuous sour note. Likewise less-than-palatable are Kearney’s cartoon renditions of pirates, ancient and prehistoric people, and modern figures as, with only rare exceptions (and those mostly in the occasional photos), white—one notable exception is a group of Navajo fire dancers portrayed as identical brown lads in loincloths.
An almost savory assemblage that’s spoiled by too many stale ingredients. (index, annotated bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78701-278-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
This survey of body systems tries too hard for a broad audience, mixing paragraphs of lines like, “Without bones we would just be bags of goop,” printed in slightly larger type, with brief but specific discussions of osteoblasts, myofibrils, peristalsis and like parts and functions. Seven single or double gatefolds allow the many simple, brightly painted illustrations space to range from thumbnail size to forearm-length. Many of the visuals offer inside and outside views of a multicultural cast—of children, by and large, though the sexual organs are shown on headless trunks and the final picture provides a peek inside a pregnant mother. Even if younger readers don’t stumble over the vocabulary while older ones reject the art as babyish, this isn’t going to make the top shelf; information is presented in a scattershot way, the text and pictures don’t consistently correspond—three muscles needed to kick a soccer ball are named but not depicted, for instance, and an entire tongue is labeled “taste bud”—and the closing resource list is both print only and partly adult. (glossary, bibliography, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7091-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
It’s not exactly an untold tale, but this new telling is worth the read.
A solid new entry in Mann’s exemplary tour of the modern world’s architectural wonders (The Taj Mahal, 2008, etc.).
Even sticking to the basic facts, as the author does, the story of how Lady Liberty was conceived, constructed and bestowed makes a compelling tale. Pointing to the disparate long-term outcomes of the American and French revolutions to explain why the U.S. system of government became so admired in France, Mann takes the statue from Edouard Laboulaye’s pie-in-the-sky proposal at a dinner party in 1865 to the massive opening ceremonies in 1886. Along the way, she highlights the techniques that sculptor Bartholdi used to scale up his ambitious model successfully and the long struggle against public indifference and skepticism on both sides of the Atlantic to fund both the monument itself and its base. Witschonke supplements an array of period photos and prints with full-page or larger painted reconstructions of Bartholdi’s studio and workshop, of the statue’s piecemeal creation and finally of the Lady herself, properly copper colored as she initially was, presiding over New York’s crowded harbor. As she still does.
It’s not exactly an untold tale, but this new telling is worth the read. (measurements, bibliography, "The New Colossus") (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-931414-43-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Mikaya Press
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
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