by Miriam Peskowitz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2019
Effective skills progression conveyed in an irritating tone.
This beginners-oriented book from the co-author (with Andrea J. Buchanan) of The Daring Book for Girls (2007) guides readers from basic programming concepts to DIY computerized crafts.
The instruction starts with an efficient chapter on programming in Scratch, which is a good way to get used to working with programming concepts without getting bogged down in typing code. Next, the book jumps to hardware in a chapter on setting up a Raspberry Pi computer. Then it’s back to code for a healthy dose of functional training in Python via writing a Mad Libs–style game. The fourth chapter jumps back to hardware for tinkering in electronics—while some projects here may disappoint, some are cool and useful (e.g., taking apart old earbuds to make smartphone gloves). The fifth and final instructional chapter culminates the lessons by combining all of the skills learned for the big project of setting up a bedroom motion detector that sends email alerts when tripped (although, if readers use Gmail as instructed, this may trip Google’s security features and require adjusting account settings to be less secure). The conversational, generally positive tone stresses perseverance and that mistakes are OK; however, the repeated reassurances sometimes cross over into condescension or even socially conditioned female self-deprecation, which seems the opposite of the book’s goal. Full-color screenshots throughout provide clarity.
Effective skills progression conveyed in an irritating tone. (glossary, acknowledgments, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1389-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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by Kathleen Krull & illustrated by Boris Kulikov ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2006
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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by Kathleen Krull & illustrated by Boris Kulikov
by Kathleen Krull & illustrated by Boris Kulikov
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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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