Not every volume will change a reader’s life, but this one just might. The dilemma is this: Human beings are omnivores; we can eat just about anything, but how do we know what’s best to eat? Adopting the role of food detective, the author “peers behind the curtain” of the modern food industry and finds that the industrial approach to the food chain imperils our health and planet. The four sections of the volume describe differing types of meals: industrial; industrial organic; local sustainable; and hunted, gathered and found. Clear organization and lively writing rooted in fascinating examples make this accessible and interesting. The source notes and bibliography are thorough. Though some readers may find more about certain topics than they care to know—corn, for example—motivated kids will learn much about where their food comes from and what to do about it, and they may want to seek out the follow-up volume for adults, In Defense of Food (2008). (index, not seen) (Nonfiction. 11 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3415-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
A predictable, fast-paced sports tale with some unexpected heart.
Harrison has led a hard-knock life up until he’s taken in by loving foster parents “Coach” and Jennifer.
After he inadvertently causes the man’s death, Harrison is taken from a brutal foster home run by a farmer who uses foster kids as unpaid labor, a situation blithely ignored by the county. His new foster parents are different. Coach is in charge of the middle school football team, and all 13-year-old Harrison has ever wanted to do is to play football, the perfect outlet for his seething undercurrent of anger at life. Oversized for his age, he’s brilliant at the game but also over-the-top aggressive, until a hit makes his knee start aching—and then life deals him another devastating blow. The pain isn’t an injury but bone cancer. Many of the characters—loving friends Justin and Becky, bully Leo, a mean-spirited math teacher, cancer victim Marty and the major, an amputee veteran who comes to rehabilitate Harrison after life-changing surgery—are straight out of the playbook for maudlin middle-grade fiction. Nevertheless, this effort edges above trite because of well-depicted football scenes and the sheer force of Harrison himself. His altogether believable anger diminishes his likability but breathes life into an otherwise stock role.
A predictable, fast-paced sports tale with some unexpected heart. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-208956-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
Overhearing that her job at the diner might be eliminated, Pinky Pig sets out to discover new ways to improve customer satisfaction. Can she save her job and earn enough money to buy a clarinet? Her new menu brings in the customers in droves. Children will squirm over the new concoctions, with something unique for each patron: Snailburger Supreme for Hedgehog, a burger with worms lightly fried for Mole, a termite-infested burger for Aardvark, not to mention Burger Deluxe, which has three kinds of bugs! Who could resist? Yee (Fireman Small to the Rescue, 1998, etc.) pens this fable lightly, but the moral is plain: by putting others first, Pinky attains what she wants. Whimsical, often hilarious watercolors show Pinky fast at work collecting assorted bugs of all sizes and shapes. Up-and-coming young biologists might be inspired to come up with some recipes of their own. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-87548-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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