by Mary Kay Carson ; photographed by Tom Uhlman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2014
A welcome demonstration of the breadth of possibilities in scientific work.
In Yellowstone, Saguaro and Great Smoky Mountains national parks, scientists help manage natural resources while they study them.
The field scientists profiled in this latest title in the long-running Scientists in the Field series work in natural places that are protected, ideal for long-term studies. Many series titles focus on one scientist or scientific subject, but here, the author-photographer team introduces readers to a grand variety of career scientists: geologist, wildlife biologist, herpetologist, evolutionary ecologist, entomologist and a park biologist coordinating collaborative projects in many fields. Their research areas will appeal to a wide range of readers. Each section is introduced with a postcard image and fast facts about one of the parks. These include reasons to visit and further Web resources. The first section describes studies of two of Yellowstone’s most famous attractions: geysers and grizzly bears. The next two projects involve volunteers (including high school students) as citizen scientists who track Gila monsters and measure Saguaro cacti in Arizona. The Sonoran desert there makes a striking contrast with the “[m]oist mature forest” in the Great Smoky Mountains, ideal habitat for salamanders and fireflies that synchronize their flashes. Uhlman’s photographs are colorful, clearly explained and nicely reproduced. Maps and charts support the text.
A welcome demonstration of the breadth of possibilities in scientific work. (Nonfiction. 10-15)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-547-79268-2
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
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by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent ; photographed by Nate Dappen & Neil Losin
by Nancy F. Castaldo ; photographed by Morgan Heim
by Sy Montgomery ; photographed by Tianne Strombeck
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by Andrea Warren ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2019
Written straightforwardly, it’s not the most engaging read, but it is an invaluable record of an incredible life.
An encompassing look at Norman Mineta, the first Asian-American to serve as mayor of a major American city, a Congressman, and Secretary of Commerce and Transportation under George W. Bush.
Mineta is a Nisei, a second-generation Japanese-American, born in San Jose, California. Writing efficiently with concise descriptors, Warren narrates in the third person, focusing primarily on the family and social environment of Mineta’s school-age years. Warren starts with Mineta’s father and his immigration to the U.S. for work. He wisely became fluent in English while working in the fields, later establishing his own insurance business, enabling him to give all five children great educational opportunities. Their lives are quickly disrupted by World World II. Mineta now 11, his parents, and most of his much-older siblings are sent to an assembly center in Santa Anita, California. Eventually they end up in Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, Wyoming. The experience drives Mineta to later pursue politics and to introduce the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, offering camp survivors restitution and a formal apology from the government. Warren includes anecdotes of white allies, including a chapter about Alan Simpson, a childhood acquaintance and later a political ally of Mineta in Congress. Pronunciation guides to Japanese are provided in the text. Archival photographs provide visuals, and primary-source quotes—including racial slurs—contribute historical context. No timeline is provided.
Written straightforwardly, it’s not the most engaging read, but it is an invaluable record of an incredible life. (author’s note, bibliography, index) (Biography. 10-15)Pub Date: April 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4151-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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by Amy Stewart ; illustrated by Briony Morrow-Cribbs ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 8, 2017
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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