by Sean Connolly ; illustrated by Chad Thomas ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 29, 2016
Worth the purchase just to learn the most effective angle to skip a stone across a water surface.
Hands-on demonstrations and explanations show how scientific principles apply in the wide world of sports.
Organized into seven chapters based on how and where the sports are played (bats and balls, indoor sports, aquatic sports, etc.), each short segment is based on a particular question: "Why does pumping up a basketball make it bouncier?" "Why are pole vaulting poles so bendy?" "Do tennis surfaces really matter?" The 54 demonstrations (which the author calls experiments but are often little more than observations) are also organized into sports-themed sections: necessary materials (“the line-up”), illustrated step-by-step instructions (“play ball!”), a section of any needed cautions (“two-minute warning”), and explanation (“slo-mo replay”). The materials are readily available, and expected times are given for each. Many can be done in a matter of a few minutes, a few might be as much as a half hour. For the most part the explanations really do connect a science principle with a sports phenomenon, though occasionally they show the opposite or muddy the waters. Terms such as “momentum,” “velocity,” “torque,” and “elastic collision” are defined in context and in a glossary. It’s a pity there is no index, but sports enthusiasts will find it entertaining, and science teachers could use examples to spice up their presentations.
Worth the purchase just to learn the most effective angle to skip a stone across a water surface. (Nonfiction. 9-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-8928-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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by Kathleen Krull & illustrated by Boris Kulikov ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2006
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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by Kathleen Krull & illustrated by Boris Kulikov
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by Jonah Winter ; illustrated by Jeanette Winter ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2020
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care.
In 1977, the oil carrier Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into a formerly pristine Alaskan ocean inlet, killing millions of birds, animals, and fish. Despite a cleanup, crude oil is still there.
The Winters foretold the destructive powers of the atomic bomb allusively in The Secret Project (2017), leaving the actuality to the backmatter. They make no such accommodations to young audiences in this disturbing book. From the dark front cover, on which oily blobs conceal a seabird, to the rescuer’s sad face on the back, the mother-son team emphasizes the disaster. A relatively easy-to-read and poetically heightened text introduces the situation. Oil is pumped from the Earth “all day long, all night long, / day after day, year after year” in “what had been unspoiled land, home to Native people // and thousands of caribou.” The scale of extraction is huge: There’s “a giant pipeline” leading to “enormous ships.” Then, crash. Rivers of oil gush out over three full-bleed wordless pages. Subsequent scenes show rocks, seabirds, and sea otters covered with oil. Finally, 30 years later, animals have returned to a cheerful scene. “But if you lift a rock… // oil / seeps / up.” For an adult reader, this is heartbreaking. How much more difficult might this be for an animal-loving child?
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3077-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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