Experiments in this title in the “Health Science Projects,” series deal with weight, food, and nutrition. Most experiments require adult assistance or supervision, a basic understanding of chemistry, and access to precise measuring tools as well as potentially poisonous substances, all of which will limit the usefulness of the title for home science enthusiasts. The author of many award-winning science-project books begins with safety rules, and then provides experiments to test foods for carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and vitamin C, discusses nutritional information provided on consumer products, investigates digestion and enzymes, and explores the relationship between food, weight, and diet. Some experiments seem unlikely to give useful results under the conditions described. For example, measuring the energy stored in a single corn puff, he has the experimenter burn one half of a corn puff to heat 150 g. of water contained in a juice can. He indicates a calorie is the amount of heat required to raise one gram of water 1 degree C. To raise 150 g. of water 1 degree C, would require that the half corn puff contain 150 calories. Unlikely! The experimenter would also need a thermometer sensitive enough to record a single degree change in temperature. And would need to control other variables, for example the heat given off by the igniting device, heat lost to the air and to the metal container. Most useful are sections dealing with food labels and consumer awareness. (suppliers, further reading, Web sites, index) (Nonfiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7660-1442-8
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Enslow
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A brief discussion of the development and persistence of gender roles acts as an introduction to this excellent overview of what it has meant to be a girl in this country, from pre-colonial times to the present. Colman (Rosie the Riveter, 1995, etc.) never resorts to a generic ideal or tells the story as if she is speaking of an “everygirl”; instead, she allows a narrative to emerge from the histories and words of real people, from every social, ethnic, and economic level in the US. Some of the subjects and speakers are well-known, others are not (although they probably ought to be), but all are interesting and inspiring. Alice Greenough, daughter of “Packsaddle Ben” Greenough, grew up in the turn-of-the- century Montana wilderness where she did all the things her brothers did; Mary Elizabeth Bowser, a young black woman, worked with Elizabeth Van Lew, a middle-aged white woman, as spies for the Union army; Lilac Chen, a former prostitute in 19th- century San Francisco, tells how her own father sold her into slavery in China when she was only 6; and Yvonne “Eve” Blue, an obviously anorexic 14-year-old, maintained her gaunt frame by limiting herself to 140 calories a day—in 1926. These and dozens of other fascinating people offer more insight into gender roles better than any history text or sociological treatise, in lively writing that is greatly enhanced by page after page of black-and-white photographs, an extensive list of further reading, and a good index. A must-have for most collections. (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-590-37129-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
After years of normal living, a teenager learns he has epilepsy and has to cope not just with the disease, but with the side effects, including the hostility of his peers. High schooler Lefty has an epileptic seizure while hanging out with his best friend, Reuben, and must subsequently learn to live with the disease, deal with medication, make lifestyle changes, overcome his own fear, as well as that of family and friends, and face his peers. What little action there is in this marathon talkfest concerns Lefty and his friends (including his 12-year-old brother) smoking and drinking. In his tough, working-class neighborhood this is considered perfectly normal, and the author never counters that. Most of readers’ efforts may be spent trying to keep track of the many characters: Lefty’s friends and brothers, his mother’s tough-as-nails girlfriends, neighbors, classmates, medical personnel, etc. When Lefty, a budding writer, pens an imaginary dialogue between two elderly neighbors and a would-be mugger, the story picks up; otherwise this is a flat and emotionally distant bull session that, though extended, leads nowhere. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2000
ISBN: 1-55143-166-1
Page Count: 215
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
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