Content takes a back seat to production value in this glossy, oversized, superficial survey of space exploration. De Goursac opens invitingly enough—“This is your universe. Let’s take off into space!” But then he launches a look at the history of rockets, the U.S. space program and past and present exploratory missions to the (nine) planets that is not only routine, but so ridden with generalities that he seldom even identifies the astronauts in the pictures. Laye decorates each single-topic spread with a crudely drawn vignette or two, but the main visual events are the undifferentiated arrays of big, dazzling space photos and dramatic artists’ renditions that dominate each opening. Tasty eye candy, to be sure, deserving more than a narrative that quaintly uses only the male pronoun, barely notes that the space effort is international, and, when it comes to Pluto “and Beyond,” presents now-outdated information. The last may hardly be the author’s fault, but it weakens the appeal even further—as does the lack of an index or any leads to further resources. At best, a candidate for low-browsing orbit. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8109-5719-1
Page Count: 78
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
The Pumpkin Book (32 pp.; $16.95; Sept. 15; 0-8234-1465-5): From seed to vine and blossom to table, Gibbons traces the growth cycle of everyone’s favorite autumn symbol—the pumpkin. Meticulous drawings detail the transformation of tiny seeds to the colorful gourds that appear at roadside stands and stores in the fall. Directions for planting a pumpkin patch, carving a jack-o’-lantern, and drying the seeds give young gardeners the instructions they need to grow and enjoy their own golden globes. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1465-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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