Maintains a brisk pace and clearly depicts riveting maritime action.
The daring and dangerous rescue of a ship caught in the maelstrom of Hurricane Sandy.
In late October 2012, Connecticut was bracing for the arrival of Sandy, which was moving north from the Bahamas. Capt. Robin Walbridge, 63, who had been through hurricanes before, decided to outmaneuver the coming storm by taking his ship, the HMS Bounty, out of the path of the storm. Modeled after the legendary 18th-century merchant vessel, this modern three-masted ship was built in 1960 for use in the maritime drama Mutiny on the Bounty and also featured in two Pirates of the Caribbean movies. After reinforcing several parts of the ship, Walbridge and his 15 crew members left New London for St. Petersburg, Florida. The authors document the crew members’ various apprehensions and misgivings, but among them there was broad respect for the captain. The backstories of these men and women are peppered through the narrative in tidbits that don’t slow the propulsive story. Each titled chapter reads like an episode in a serialized adventure tale, often beginning with the ship’s location and ending with a cliffhanger. The courage of the crew, the high-stakes battles with the elements, and the ensuing tragedy are hallmarks of the tale. Analysis of what happened, which would have slackened the story’s accelerating velocity, is saved for culminating notes by both Tougias and Campbell.
Maintains a brisk pace and clearly depicts riveting maritime action. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-83139-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Mostly speculative at this point, but the topic offers equal measures of promise and provocation.
Introductions to 10 robots modeled on the human body, with thoughts on their current and future uses.
Pepper, a robot designed by a Japanese firm “to provide companionship,” is the only one of the gallery that is currently being produced rather than in a prototype stage. The other nine are mostly built for emergency or industrial work, such as SAFFiR, a “Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot”; Hubo, which can bend and also shift from legs to wheels; and Valkyrie, a NASA project intended for off-Earth work. For each, Becker offers very general physical specifications, a “Mission,” a brief description of its “Superpower,” and a bulleted list of possible applications. More generally, she also takes closer general looks at robotic hands, eyes, and other necessary components, glances at artificial intelligence and its corporeal cousin, embodied intelligence, and discusses the statistical “uncanny valley” or “ick factor” in observers’ reactions to robots that look almost but not quite human. She closes by floating the notion of robots’ rights, suggesting that it might already be too late to keep them from taking over the world. Depicted with glossy realism that fades at the bottom into sketches to show that they are mostly conceptual designs, Ries’ robots—particularly the ones with light- or dark-skinned human faces—stare inscrutably out at viewers.
Mostly speculative at this point, but the topic offers equal measures of promise and provocation. (index, resource list) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77138-785-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
After surveying “competing claims” for the first Thanksgiving from 1541 on, in Texas, Florida, Maine, Virginia and Massachusetts, Colman decides in favor of the 1621 event with the English colonists and Wampanoag as the first “because the 1621 event was more like the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today.” She demonstrates, however, that the “Pilgrim and Indian” story is really not the antecedent of Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today. Rather, two very old traditions—harvest festivals and days of thanksgiving for special events—were the origin, and this interesting volume traces how the custom of proclaiming a general day of thanksgiving took hold. Yet, since many Thanksgiving celebrations in towns and schools are still rooted in the “Pilgrim and Indian” story, which the author calls “true and important,” but which many Native Americans find objectionable, a more in-depth discussion of it is warranted here. The solid bibliography does include some fine resources, such as 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (2001) by Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac. (author’s note, chronology, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8229-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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