Young makers will find the Scrap Pack’s enthusiasm infectious, but even as broad overviews, these offer at best incomplete...
A mouse, a bird, and a junkyard frog assemble a car from the ground up—cluing in readers who may be a bit vague on what’s beneath all those hoods…or at least what used to be.
Enlisting his green buddy Hank to supply the parts and feathered Phoebe to draw up the plans, Eli, “king of crazy ideas,” sees his latest project grow from a frame and some miscellaneous loose parts to a nifty blue convertible with a classic 1950s look. At each stage, Sodomka supplies clearly drawn angled or cutaway views with dozens of major components labeled, from “steering knuckle bracket” to “tie rod” and “ball joint.” The gas tank is labeled but seems to be missing, though, and readers who want to know what a “differential” actually does or the purpose of the “indicator switch” are out of luck. Lacey’s claim that an engine “is like the brain of the car” doesn’t bear close examination, either. Moreover, the finished auto isn’t much like most modern cars, as it has no electronic elements, for instance, and is powered by a three-cylinder engine (misleadingly billed as “regular”) quaintly fed by a long-obsolescent carburetor. With an auto under their belts (and with similar oversimplification), Eli’s “Scrap Pack” goes on to an even more ambitious enterprise in How to Build a Plane. In both volumes, closer looks at selected systems or related topics follow the storyline’s happy conclusion, and each broad trial-and-error step in the construction is recapped at the end.
Young makers will find the Scrap Pack’s enthusiasm infectious, but even as broad overviews, these offer at best incomplete pictures. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63322-041-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Quarto
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The pictures are a patchwork, but the authorial voice is distinct and the story has its unique aspects.
An astronaut’s story, from early adventures with his twin brother (who also became an astronaut) to record-breaking feats in space.
Though in most respects typical of astronaut profiles for younger readers, this one features unusually personal notes—a nod to his “girlfriend,” Amiko, and early childhood memories of hiding in the bedroom with his brother when their parents fought—and also vivid writing. Kelly describes re-entry as “like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel—but while you’re on fire!” In a personable voice he highlights major youthful experiences, then goes on to give quicker accounts of his training and career, which began with a life-changing reading of Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff (1979) and culminated in four missions capped by a year spent in orbit to track long-term physical changes, with his brother back on Earth serving as control. (Kelly will doubtless cover all of this in greater detail in his memoir for adult readers, scheduled for publication at the same time.) In an ill-judged attempt to fill in gaps, the illustrations, most of which are a mix of family snapshots and official NASA photos, alternate with or are superimposed on very simply drawn cartoon portraits or frames. The Kelly family is white; some astronauts and other figures in both the photos and in Ceolin’s scenes are dark-skinned.
The pictures are a patchwork, but the authorial voice is distinct and the story has its unique aspects. (Picture book/autobiography. 7-9)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6377-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Considering the flotilla of more watertight treatments available, a washout.
A dip into the diverse bodies of water on our planet and some of the ways we interact with them.
Like water itself, this survey doesn’t take any particular shape. Illustrated with large photos in which the author digitally inserts small cartoon animals and items, single-topic spreads are arranged in seemingly arbitrary order. They offer brief overviews of the water cycle; fresh, salt, and brackish waters and their natural residents; oceans; select seas, lakes, canals, and waterfalls; rivers both major (the Amazon, the Nile) and not so much (the Brooks River in Alaska); “Famous Places” such as Venice and Yellowstone National Park; the “floating market” of Bangkok; and other subjects before suddenly running aground on the southern coast of Australia. Each topic concludes with a cartoon and a question (“Which dam is a little too low?” “Which rabbit is surprised by the geyser?”) that playfully test comprehension, but the one activity, a perfunctory suggestion to fill a bucket with seawater then wait for the water to evaporate, is no more feasible than the ensuing claim that the residue will be “the same salt that you have in the kitchen cupboard!” is accurate.
Considering the flotilla of more watertight treatments available, a washout. (Nonfiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-60537-354-6
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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