An enjoyable dive into the cultural impact of a hypnotizingly beautiful color.
An exploration of all things indigo.
In this thought-provoking work, Chang explains that she fell in love with the color blue while daydreaming as a child in Korea. She reminisces about “the strong shade of blue sky we called jjok” as well as the “darkest blue of all in the night sky during a camping trip in the woods.” When she moved to the United States as an adult, a friend gave her the seeds of an indigo plant—the source of the blue she has long admired in clothing like her hanbok. “Now I grow indigo plants with my friends on a little farm in the middle of Baltimore.” She explains how they plant seeds in seedling trays, replant them in the garden, harvest the plants, and extract the dye using ingredients such as calcium hydroxide. Chang touches on the cultural significance of indigo—to her friends, it means “community” or “the spirit and soul of my people.” But she notes that “indigo also has a painful past” and that many enslaved people were forced to work on indigo farms. As Chang and her friends harvest and share seeds, she reflects on the knowledge and joy she has found while working with the medium. An attractive stitched patchwork of indigo-dyed textiles is interspersed throughout the bright, intricately textured illustrations. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An enjoyable dive into the cultural impact of a hypnotizingly beautiful color. (more about indigo, jjok and Korean history, recipe for making indigo dye, a map of indigo plants around the world) (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781662650659
Page Count: 40
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort.
A look at the unique ways that 11 globe-spanning animal species construct their homes.
Each creature garners two double-page spreads, which Cherrix enlivens with compelling and at-times jaw-dropping facts. The trapdoor spider constructs a hidden burrow door from spider silk. Sticky threads, fanning from the entrance, vibrate “like a silent doorbell” when walked upon by unwitting insect prey. Prairie dogs expertly dig communal burrows with designated chambers for “sleeping, eating, and pooping.” The largest recorded “town” occupied “25,000 miles and housed as many as 400 million prairie dogs!” Female ants are “industrious insects” who can remove more than a ton of dirt from their colony in a year. Cathedral termites use dirt and saliva to construct solar-cooled towers 30 feet high. Sasaki’s lively pictures borrow stylistically from the animal compendiums of mid-20th-century children’s lit; endpapers and display type elegantly suggest the blues of cyanotypes and architectural blueprints. Jarringly, the lead spread cheerfully extols the prowess of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef, “the world’s largest living structure,” while ignoring its accelerating, human-abetted destruction. Calamitously, the honeybee hive is incorrectly depicted as a paper-wasps’ nest, and the text falsely states that chewed beeswax “hardens into glue to shape the hive.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort. (selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5625-9
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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