Worth exploring in depth.
Dive with Annie Crawley through three strikingly different undersea worlds to see how climate change endangers them all.
“We all have a story to tell” photographer Crawley says. In her daily life, she teaches land-dwellers to dive in the ocean, encouraging them to appreciate it and to share its beauty—and its problems. Newman’s words and Crawley’s pictures do just that for young readers here, with a clear narrative that combines science, images, and the voices of young divers and Indigenous peoples to get across their point. “The ocean is us,” says Crawley; helping the ocean helps us all. An introduction points out that maps emphasize landmasses, dividing and diminishing the ocean, which, in truth, covers 70% of the Earth. Chapter by chapter, the writer follows the dive instructor and her team visiting the Coral Triangle in southeast Asia, the Salish Sea in western North America, and the Arctic at “the top of the world.” There are also intriguing photographs (alas, not all clearly captioned), maps and charts, and short essays introducing other photographers, activists, scientists, and even a composer, all of whom work to care for the ocean and to tell its story. QR codes lead to further illustrative videos on the publisher’s website. The range of nationalities represented and the inclusion of a variety of Indigenous voices make a particularly compelling argument that ocean health is a whole world problem. The backmatter includes tips on visual storytelling and actions readers can take to help the oceans.
Worth exploring in depth. (author and photographer’s note, glossary, source notes, further resources) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5415-8121-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Just like Times Square itself, the pages are filled to the brim.
An unexpected history of a very famous intersection.
Millions of people begin each new year mesmerized by the ball drop atop One Times Square. But before all the glitz and flashing lights, Times Square was filled with carriages, livery stables and coal yards. It is a stark contrast that’s difficult to imagine. McKendry (Beneath the Streets of Boston: Building America’s First Subway, 2005) takes readers on a journey through 100 years of shifts and changes to this well-known New York City landscape. Beginning in 1904 when the New York Times headquarters was built and forever changed the name of this small plot of land, McKendry accompanies the text with a spectacular painting of the Square from a specific point of view. This same perspective is used repeatedly throughout the narrative, simultaneously grounding readers and letting them watch in awe as buildings and technology sprout and change. Interspersed with the Square’s history—during both thriving years and sordid ones—are fascinating tidbits such as the inner workings of billboards, the arrival of the Motograph News Bulletin (or the “Zipper”) and, of course, the exact number of light bulbs found in the 2000 Millennium ball. Cross sections, diagrams and stunning double-page spreads show how these few tiny streets have changed in very large ways.
Just like Times Square itself, the pages are filled to the brim. (sources) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-56792-364-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Godine
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Debuting a new series, Krull presents a compelling argument that the great painter of the Renaissance was one of the West’s first real modern scientists. Into the stew of superstition that passed for scientific thought in medieval Europe was born Leonardo, illegitimate and therefore only very sketchily schooled, he grew up largely on his own, rambling around his family’s property and observing nature. The portrait that emerges is of a magpie mind: He studied and thought and wrote about very nearly everything. The breezy text draws heavily from Leonardo’s own writings, discussing his groundbreaking forays into anatomy, water management and flight, always propelled by a commitment to direct scientific observation. That Krull manages, in some 100-plus text pages, to present Leonardo’s scientific accomplishments while at the same time conveying a sense of the man himself—his probable homosexuality is presented frankly, as are his pacifism and the overriding opportunism that had him designing weapons of war for the Duke of Milan—is no mean feat and bodes well for the succeeding volumes in the series. (appendix, bibliography, Web sites, index) (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-670-05920-X
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
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