An underpowered survey.
A visual history of transportation technology, from early wheels to the rover Curiosity.
Readers aren’t going to be carried very far by this ponderous assemblage of staid modern stock images and (here and there) photos paired to perfunctory notes on top speeds, uses, and the like. They are grouped by general type, with occasional changes of pace, such as a quick glance at some varieties of “greener” transport shoehorned in between the trains and aircraft. The pictures—most of them small, depicting vehicles unencumbered by visible drivers or crews, and monotonously pinned to pale, neutral-colored background grids—are laid into their arbitrarily ordered single-topic spreads without regard for relative scale or visual flow. Despite offering looks at a great array of wheeled, airborne, and nautical vehicles of the present as well as the past, the gallery is not only selective and stingy at best with action or cutaway views, but stale to boot. The newest fighter jet (an F-117, 1981 vintage), for example, was superseded in 2008; the latest model of electric auto mentioned outside the closing timeline is a 2010 Nissan Leaf; and the most recent space probe, Cassini-Huygens, was launched in 1997. Moreover, so Eurocentric is the viewpoint that only four of the 23 older types of sailing vessels on display are not European or North American.
An underpowered survey. (timeline, list of records, index) (Reference. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77085-931-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Tickets (not to mention affordable ones) may still be a few years off…but it’s never too soon to start planning.
With a new era of commercial space flight in the offing, here’s a timely guide for young prospective travelers headed to choice astro-destinations.
Whether the itinerary features a suborbital flight, extended stays aboard the International Space Station, or longer excursions to the moon, Mars, a comet, Jupiter, or Saturn, McMahon supplies not only advice about preparing for each journey and coping with issues from boredom to bone loss, but also suggestions for appropriate activities. These include swimming in a zero-gravity pool, spotting certain terrestrial landmarks from orbit, or windsurfing on Saturn’s moon Titan. The author fills in background facts about major sights on the planets and other destinations, and he describes several spacecraft currently operational or under development. Additional reflections from such experienced astronauts as Chris Hadfield and Sunita Williams, plus plenty of color photos complementing Holinaty’s illustrations, bring space tourism that much closer to seeming like a real thing. Frank cautionary references to “consciousness-losing, barf-inducing g-forces” and other hazards only serve to buff up the promise that the experience of space travel will be a vivid one. Humans in the photos are diverse, as are Holinaty’s cartoon figures of space-suited young travelers.
Tickets (not to mention affordable ones) may still be a few years off…but it’s never too soon to start planning. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77138-032-4
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Suspenseful, grand of scope, and related with cinematic brio.
The story of one of our country’s greatest infrastructure projects, from “mad dream” to golden spike.
Hirsch doesn’t gloss over the enterprise’s rampant financial chicanery, undisguised exploitation of Irish and Chinese immigrants, and environmental damage—even adding an afterword that highlights them—but by and large he plays this account of the rail line’s Civil War–era conception and construction as a breathless, epic race between two teams of racially and culturally diverse hired workers, punctuated by fiendish conniving, remarkable feats of engineering, and broad comedy. Hirsch parades a cast of colorfully wrought historical figures ranging from the Union Pacific Railroad’s larger than life Chief Engineer Peter Dey (“Shh! He’s envisioning!” comments an awed bystander) to the Central Pacific’s hard-driving Construction Superintendent J.H. Strobridge, whose “TOOT!”-threaded fulminations evidently signal serious intestinal issues. Through tumultuous cartoon panels, the author/illustrator follows the progress of Irish war veteran Tom coming east and “Gold Mountain” seeker Lim, from China, to stand in for the workers as they face hardships both natural and otherwise on the way to a climactic handshake in the final scene. Exhilarated readers will come away with clear enough pictures of the project’s costs and benefits to decide whether the one was worth the other.
Suspenseful, grand of scope, and related with cinematic brio. (Graphic nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-79477-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
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