A lively and original approach to a complex subject.
A boy who looks like he’s visiting from a digital cartoon film provides step-by-step instructions so his friends can build a planet just like the one we inhabit.
From a bang-up beginning to finishing touches (including human beings) and some suggestions for planet care, this lighthearted approach to the origins of the universe, the Earth and its inhabitants covers 13.7 billion years of development in 64 pages of short, snappy prose. Lively design, liberal use of comic-style illustrations, text presented in small plates (usually a single paragraph with a heading) and frequent time checks make this information easily digestible. Each step covers four to six pages. The author also introduces big numbers, small particles, and long time and distance scales. He covers star life and planet formation, even including the most common theory about the origin of our moon. Timelines at the beginning and near the end will help readers get a sense of the whole. Distilling this much science is a challenge, and space permits the exploration of only a few alternate theories. There are points on which specialists may disagree, occasional oversimplifications and omissions, and facts overtaken by new discoveries. (The book was first published in Australia in 2012.) But overall, the content is sound and likely to provide a solid structure for further learning.
A lively and original approach to a complex subject. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-894786-88-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
Mightily entertaining and if unlikely to broaden a young reader’s knowledge of the history of science, certain to humanize...
Krull profiles 20 scientists—warning away at the outset anyone interested in the actual details of their discoveries because here, she’s all about dishing on their lives and egos instead.
Though in other works she focuses on scientific achievements, here Krull caters to readers less interested in Einstein’s explanation of the photoelectric effect than that he had an affair with his cousin or in Newton’s laws of physics than his practice, as warden of the Royal Mint, of attending the hangings of convicted counterfeiters. The author presents a series of quick biographical sketches, most capped with “Extra Credit” comments about each subject’s enduring legacy—or, in the case of Einstein’s brain and Galileo’s fingers, errant body parts. Though all but two are dead (and the exceptions, Jane Goodall and James D. Watson, are no spring chickens), her choices for inclusion are reasonably diverse. Ibn Sina, George Washington Carver, and one ancient and one modern scientist of Asian descent expand the Eurocentric roster of usual suspects. Also, six women claim unique or shared entries, and several influential others, such as astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt, earn mentions. Hewitt adds typically funny, bigheaded but recognizable caricature portraits and iconic interior vignettes to lighten the informational load further.
Mightily entertaining and if unlikely to broaden a young reader’s knowledge of the history of science, certain to humanize it. (reading list, no source notes or index) (Collective biography. 9-12)Pub Date: July 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-15-205909-5
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
In all, a solid addition to the insect shelves, with a valuable emphasis on science as process.
Markle presents a solid, respectful overview of colony collapse disorder for an audience slightly younger than Loree Griffin Burns’ The Hive Detectives (2010).
The author opens her story in October 2006, with a beekeeper checking on his hive to discover that thousands of his workers have disappeared. From this compelling opening, she backtracks to discuss the importance of honeybees in pollination as well as bee basics. She then moves on to discuss possible causes of CCD: monoculture and suburban sprawl, overwork (a map provides graphic testimony to commercial bees’ arduous schedules), mites, fungus and pesticides. Both natural and human defenses against CCD present some hope. Bees reproduce fast, and adjustments made to bees’ schedules and feeding can help, as does breeding mite- and disease-resistant bees and the rise in hobbyist beekeeping. Markle never talks down to her audience, using specialized vocabulary—Nosema ceranae, varroa mite, neonicotinoid—and lucidly defining it in context as well as gathering it in a glossary. Big, full-color photographs are reproduced against honey-colored backgrounds. (Sharp-eyed readers will wonder why there is no mention of a mite clearly attached to a dead bee in a photograph captioned, “This bee didn’t have any symptoms to show it was sick before it died.”) Further facts as well as ways to help honeybees appear in the backmatter.
In all, a solid addition to the insect shelves, with a valuable emphasis on science as process. (bibliography, index) . (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-0592-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2013
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