A one-trick pony, grounded by uneven production values and low octane content.
Aside from a design gimmick, there’s not much worth notice in this routine, scattershot history of space flight.
Big, double slide-out panels are used to good advantage in presenting a 40-inch-long portrait of the Saturn V rocket and smaller but still eye-filling images of both a space shuttle and the spidery International Space Station. Elsewhere, though, said panels just function as added space for more of the self-contained, interchangeable bite-sized picture-with–explanatory-caption units that are mechanically lined up on each spread. Following quick looks at rocketry and the solar system, Goldsmith presents Space Race highlights imbued with nationalistic fervor (Sputnik I “did nothing other than send out a constant radio signal”; Alan Shepard’s hop into space “did much to restore U.S. national pride”). He then goes on to sketchy surveys of satellites, space stations and space probes sent to other planets. His final spread, headed “Modern Missions,” contains no specific mention of developments in commercial space flight more recent than Dennis Tito’s 2001 jaunt. The digital paintings (a few of which feature cutaway views beneath flaps) are clear and sharply detailed—unlike the scanty assortment of murky photos mixed in.
A one-trick pony, grounded by uneven production values and low octane content. (index) (Novelty nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7534-6848-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kingfisher
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
A suspenseful glimpse into a dystopian America dominated by technology.
In the near future, corporations secretly run governments, and most teens and adults use neural implants that allow them to be online at all times.
Twelve-year-old Chinese American Hana can’t wait for next year, when she’ll finally be old enough to activate her neural implant just like her mother and older sister. After Hana is chosen to study at the prestigious Start-Up school, she learns about a new process that will fast-track her date for being meshed to the multiweb. At Start-Up, Hana meets new friends—Japanese and Jewish Charlene, who goes by Chuck, and Latinx Tomás—who each have their own personal motivations for succeeding. The trio compete against other students in virtual reality challenges that test their ability to use boosts, or digital enhancements that provide artificial intelligence, strength, or sensory awareness. Suspicious events at the school coupled with warnings from others trigger Hana to investigate. This smart science-fiction thriller envisions a technologically advanced future America in which Chinese culture plays a prominent role and which is still grappling with concerns like climate change, classism, and monopolies. In addition to these larger timely issues, Hana navigates complex family dynamics (among other things, her father died one year ago, and her grandmother has dementia) and burgeoning friendships in this layered work that invites critical questioning of reliance on technology.
A suspenseful glimpse into a dystopian America dominated by technology. (Science fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35039-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will need to strap on their helmets and prepare for a wild ride.
Disaster overtakes a group of sixth graders on a leadership-building white-water rafting trip.
Deep in the Montana wilderness, a dam breaks, and the resultant rush sweeps away both counselors, the rafts, and nearly all the supplies, leaving five disparate preteens stranded in the wilderness far from where they were expected to be. Narrator Daniel is a mild White kid who’s resourceful and good at keeping the peace but given to worrying over his mentally ill father. Deke, also White, is a determined bully, unwilling to work with and relentlessly taunting the others, especially Mia, a Latina, who is a natural leader with a plan. Tony, another White boy, is something of a friendly follower and, unfortunately, attaches himself to Deke while Imani, a reserved African American girl, initially keeps her distance. After the disaster, Deke steals the backpack with the remaining food and runs off with Tony, and the other three resolve to do whatever it takes to get it back, eventually having to confront the dangerous bully. The characters come from a variety of backgrounds but are fairly broadly drawn; still, their breathlessly perilous situation keeps the tale moving briskly forward, with one threatening situation after another believably confronting them. As he did with Wildfire (2019), Newbery Honoree Philbrick has crafted another action tale for young readers that’s impossible to put down.
Readers will need to strap on their helmets and prepare for a wild ride. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64727-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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