Intriguing subject matter and rock-solid pacing combine for a nifty adventure—one that may well spark a new generation of...
With co-author Freeman, Kelly takes readers back to 1975, when long-distance telephone calls cost money, calculators were expensive luxuries, and Americans fizzed with excitement about the U.S. space program.
Former astronaut Kelly takes a cool biographical fact—he and his identical twin brother, Scott, are the only siblings ever to fly in space—and spins it into an absorbing adventure. To get visiting 11-year-old twins Scott and Mark out of his hair, Grandpa suggests they build a spaceship. Taking him at his word, they enlist the help of brainy Jenny O’Malley and their neighbor Barry Leibovitz, a math nerd, and so begins a summer of clandestine research and construction. Eventually the team expands to include Howard Chin, who has a computer, and Lisa Perez, whose dad owns an auto body shop. The team studies physics at the library and scrounges for materials, promising all the adults they won’t blow anything up. The kids’ enthusiasm is infectious, and Kelly’s expertise comes through in telling, kid-friendly details, as when Barry’s older brother, a former pilot and Vietnam POW, takes them on a trip to an amusement park to determine which kids have the right stuff. If the characters often speak in infodumps, it’s because they are learning along with readers, and the information imparted is staged just right.
Intriguing subject matter and rock-solid pacing combine for a nifty adventure—one that may well spark a new generation of astronauts. (further reading) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-1545-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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