An inviting and accessible introduction to a lifetime of exploration.
A handy introduction to the visible night sky.
This neatly packaged guide covers stars and star patterns, planets that can be seen with the naked eye, the moon, and unusual sights including comets, meteor showers, satellites, and the northern (or southern) lights. The author, a London astrophysicist, provides clear explanations and instructions arranged in bite-sized text blocks on each informatively titled and jazzily designed double-page spread. There are specific directions for spotting individual stars and moon features, interesting historical tidbits, maps and photographs, and even sections called “astrofacts,” presented on the familiar outline of a tablet computer. Most useful and unusual are the "star-hopping" instructions, showing readers how to find their ways around the night sky using familiar stars and constellations. The handy zippered plastic cover makes this paperback suitable for taking on nighttime expeditions, but once young sky watchers have mastered the basics, they might prefer to leave it for home browsing and take just a planisphere (described but not included). Curiously, the text’s description of Mars’ temperatures seems to be at odds with itself (28 F is not “very pleasant and mild” in most readers’ minds), and overall, figures given for temperatures are so generalized as to be almost meaningless.
An inviting and accessible introduction to a lifetime of exploration. (Nonfiction. 7-12)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-60992-954-1
Page Count: 120
Publisher: QEB Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A quick flight but a blast from first to last.
A charged-up roundup of astro-facts.
Having previously explored everything awesome about both dinosaurs (2019) and sharks (2020), Lowery now heads out along a well-traveled route, taking readers from the Big Bang through a planet-by-planet tour of the solar system and then through a selection of space-exploration highlights. The survey isn’t unique, but Lowery does pour on the gosh-wow by filling each hand-lettered, poster-style spread with emphatic colors and graphics. He also goes for the awesome in his selection of facts—so that readers get nothing about Newton’s laws of motion, for instance, but will come away knowing that just 65 years separate the Wright brothers’ flight and the first moon landing. They’ll also learn that space is silent but smells like burned steak (according to astronaut Chris Hadfield), that thanks to microgravity no one snores on the International Space Station, and that Buzz Aldrin was the first man on the moon…to use the bathroom. And, along with a set of forgettable space jokes (OK, one: “Why did the carnivore eat the shooting star?” “Because it was meteor”), the backmatter features drawing instructions for budding space artists and a short but choice reading list. Nods to Katherine Johnson and NASA’s other African American “computers” as well as astronomer Vera Rubin give women a solid presence in the otherwise male and largely White cast of humans. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A quick flight but a blast from first to last. (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-35974-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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