A winsome interactive picture book with STEM appeal.
Running a farm is hard work, but hard work can be fun!
Ruby and Ned live on a farm and run a business selling eggs. Each of them is good at different things. Ned is skilled with numbers, so he counts the eggs and handles the money at the farmers market. Ruby is better at other tasks, like driving the delivery truck and making deliveries. Readers follow Ruby on her rounds—we see the routes she takes to her various destinations and what she does once she gets there. Ned’s experience at the farmers market is not shown. The book ends with the pair getting home, where they check on their chickens and enjoy the treats the baker made for them with their eggs. This book is fun and interactive, with mazelike road maps offering opportunities for seek-and-finds and a shortest path problem for children to solve. The gouache illustrations are simple and colorful. A cute polka-dot hen who makes quips in speech bubbles adds humor. Map keys with symbols make the seek-and-find activities easier and allow young readers to perhaps see details they may not have noticed otherwise. Ruby is White with blond hair, and Ned has light brown skin and brown hair. Background characters have a variety of skin tones and hair colors. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A winsome interactive picture book with STEM appeal. (Interactive picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4782-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
So rocket science can be fun.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
If they haven’t already thought about their futures (and they probably haven’t), toddlers and preschoolers might start planning after perusing this cheerful first guide to scientific careers. Plump-cheeked, wide-eyed tykes with various skin and hair colors introduce different professions, including zoologist, meteorologist, aerospace engineer, and environmental scientist, depicted with cues to tip readers off to what the jobs entail. The simple text presents the sometimes-long, tongue-twisting career names while helpfully defining them in comprehensible terms. For example, an environmental scientist “helps take care of our world,” and a zoologist is defined as someone who “studies how animals behave.” Scientists in general are identified as those who “study, learn, and solve problems.” Such basic language not only benefits youngsters, but also offers adults sharing the book easy vocabulary with which to expand on conversations with kids about the professions. The title’s ebullient appearance is helped along by the typography: The jobs’ names are set in all caps, printed in color and in a larger font than the surrounding text, and emphasized with exclamation points. Additionally, the buoyant watercolors feature clues to what scientists in these fields work with, such as celestial bodies for astronomers. The youngest listeners won’t necessarily get all of this, but the book works as a rudimentary introduction to STEM topics and a shoutout to scientific endeavors.
So rocket science can be fun. (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62354-149-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adults looking for an easy entry into this subject will not be disappointed.
This book presents a simplified explanation of the role the atmosphere plays in controlling climate.
The authors present a planet as a ball and its atmosphere as a blanket that envelops the ball. If the blanket is thick, the planet will be hot, as is the case for Venus. If the blanket is thin, the planet is cold, as with Mars. Planet Earth has a blanket that traps “just the right amount of heat.” The authors explain trees, animals, and oceans are part of what makes Earth’s atmosphere “just right.” “But…Uh-oh! People on Earth are changing the blanket!” The book goes on to explain how some human activities are sending “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere, thus “making the blanket heavier and thicker” and “making Earth feel unwell.” In the case of a planet feeling unwell, what would the symptoms be? Sea-level rises that lead to erosion, flooding, and island loss, along with extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, blizzards, and wildfires. Ending on a constructive note, the authors name a few of the remedies to “help our Earth before it’s too late!” By using the blanket analogy, alongside simple and clear illustrations, this otherwise complex topic becomes very accessible to young children, though caregivers will need to help with the specialized vocabulary.
Adults looking for an easy entry into this subject will not be disappointed. (Board book. 3-4)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8082-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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