An anything-but-boring introduction to the beautiful mysteries of the universe.
Two friends on Earth explore the solar system through an out-of-this-world tale about their space-traveling pets.
Sarah, sick in bed, is thrilled when her friend Jill comes to visit, since after organizing her socks and reading all of her books, she’s gotten pretty bored. To entertain her friend, Jill uses a nonfiction book about the solar system as framework for an adventure story starring their pets. Capt. Riley the dog, Cmdr. Pepper the cat, engineer Fortinbras the hamster, and science officer Slithers the snake are led by an AI named Precise Astronomical Locator (P.A.L. for short) who is obsessed with the game chess. They visit all eight planets, including Earth, and send reports back to Sarah in order to spark her interest and enthusiasm, which translates into the fuel they need to feed their spaceship—EnthusiPlasma! Through a bubbly plot and charming graphic-novel illustrations, author Mosco and illustrator Chad (with colorist Healy) create a world in which learning really is fun and even the faraway Pluto comes within reach. Concepts such as gravity and fusion are clearly explained with help from accompanying diagrams. Dialogue among both humans and animals feels natural, and the illustrations are colorful and vibrant; that Sarah and Jill are both kids of color is another plus. Backmatter includes a glossary and a guide to watching meteor showers.
An anything-but-boring introduction to the beautiful mysteries of the universe. (Graphic nonfiction. 9-14)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62672-141-8
Page Count: 130
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
There’s a lot to absorb even in this abbreviated form, but the visual approach lightens the load considerably.
A cartoon history of the tumultuous 450-year period in Chinese history known as the “Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.”
Using common-era dating and (excepting “Confucius”) Pinyin transcription for names, Liu begins the third of a four-volume history with a quick thematic recap of early Chinese civilization and the arrival of the Liao dynasty in 907. He then carries readers through to the capture of the Yuan (Mongol) capital by an unidentified “rebel army” in 1368. Though he takes only rare side glances at cultural or scientific highlights (such as the inventions of gunpowder and paper currency), he pauses in his account of successive, sometimes overlapping rises, falls, and major battles to describe Neo-Confucian precepts in some detail, as keys to understanding enduring aspects of Chinese character and outlook. In the monochrome art, dialogue more often runs to such lines as “We lost the Silk Road, let’s make up for it through sea trade” than personal interchanges. Still, the combination of silhouettes—often threatening, martial ones—with open-faced, expressively individualized figures of many social classes adds dramatic tension while neatly balancing the big-picture narrative.
There’s a lot to absorb even in this abbreviated form, but the visual approach lightens the load considerably. (maps, diagrams, recommended reading) (Graphic nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: April 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61172-034-1
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Uninspired: reads and looks like a rough draft.
An account of the first moon landing, with special focus on Michael Collins, the astronaut who stayed aloft in the command module.
“The only thing most people know about Michael Collins is that he didn’t get to walk on the moon,” writes Irvine, who then works to fill in details of his subject’s career before, during, and after his multiple stints in space. This effort is particularly lifeless, though, as bland generalities (“Michael Collins worked hard and waited for his chance”) and at best only glancing references to his family, to medical issues, to his spacesuit-design work, to his lively sense of humor—which infuses his autobiography for young readers, Flying to the Moon and other Strange Places (1976)—and to anything that he’s done since 1976 leave him a distant figure. Bishop’s drab, sketchy duotone scenes and schematic diagrams likewise keep Collins and the space program’s dramatic achievements at arm’s length; capsules and rockets are small on the page; human figures who aren’t anonymous beneath faceless helmets are barely recognizable; and the artist offers only perfunctory historical renditions of astronaut gear, control boards, and the like. Along with Flying to the Moon (for those who can find it), Bea Uusma Schyffert’s The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon (2003) offers a more animated, informative picture of Collins, Apollo, and the space program in general.
Uninspired: reads and looks like a rough draft. (timeline, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 11-13)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-88448-452-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
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