by Sheela Preuitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 3, 2020
Despite valuable profiles of individuals, more an exercise in frustration than coding.
A combination collective biography of women in computer science and JavaScript workbook.
After opening on an upbeat note, highlighting women’s historical roles in software development, the book then falls back on the dated trope of hammering in that these women were bucking sexism (“They loved what they did, and they did it well, disproving stereotypes that women were not suited for careers in STEM”), a defensive stance that won’t resonate with modern girls, who find a world of STEM toys catered just for them. Alternating double-page spreads offer profiles of female computer science pioneers, from such standards as Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper to influential scientists of color, like Annie Easley, Tracy Chou, and Lyndsey Scott—though some readers might not be impressed that her billing of “Top Model and App Developer” places beauty before brains. These are interleaved with JavaScript projects on manipulating images and videos, using a tie-in website hosted by Vidcode, a women-founded coding curriculum. The text’s instructions are often vague, with poorly defined terms—readers must use it while on the website. Unfortunately, the website also offers instructions that frequently don’t align with the book and miscalculates a beginner’s background knowledge. The result is needlessly fussy and likely to push kids to rely heavily on copy-and-paste or transcribing the book’s example code—if they don’t just give up.
Despite valuable profiles of individuals, more an exercise in frustration than coding. (source notes, glossary, about Vidcode, index) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72841-377-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
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by Praba Ram & Sheela Preuitt ; illustrated by Shilpa Ranade
by Joan Dash ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001
Born in 1880 in a tiny backwater in Alabama, Helen Keller lived a life familiar to many from the play and movie The Miracle Worker, as well as countless biographies. There’s no denying the drama in the story of the deaf and blind child for whom the world of language became possible through a dedicated and fanatically stubborn teacher, Annie Sullivan. But Helen’s life after that is even more remarkable: she went to high school and then to Radcliffe; she was a radical political thinker and a member of the Wobblies; she supported herself by lecture tours and vaudeville excursions as well as through the kindness of many. Dash (The Longitude Prize, p. 1483) does a clear-sighted and absorbing job of examining Annie’s prickly personality and the tender family that she, Helen, and Annie’s husband John Macy formed. She touches on the family pressures that conspired to keep Helen from her own pursuit of love and marriage; she makes vivid not only Helen’s brilliant and vibrant intelligence and personality, but the support of many people who loved her, cared for her, and served her. She also does not shrink from the describing the social and class divisions that kept some from crediting Annie Sullivan and others intent on making Helen into a puppet and no more. Riveting reading for students in need of inspiration, or who’re overcoming disability or studying changing expectations for women. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-590-90715-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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More by Joan Dash
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by Joan Dash & illustrated by Dušan Petričić
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by Joan Dash
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by Joan Dash
by Sy Montgomery & photographed by Eleanor Briggs ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001
The author of The Snake Scientist (not reviewed) takes the reader along on another adventure, this time to the Bay of Bengal, between India and Bangladesh to the Sundarbans Tiger Preserve in search of man-eating tigers. Beware, he cautions, “Your study subject might be trying to eat you!” The first-person narrative is full of helpful warnings: watch out for the estuarine crocodiles, “the most deadly crocodiles in the world” and the nine different kinds of dangerous sharks, and the poisonous sea snakes, more deadly than the cobra. Interspersed are stories of the people who live in and around the tiger preserve, information on the ecology of the mangrove swamp, myths and legends, and true life accounts of man-eating tigers. (Fortunately, these tigers don’t eat women or children.) The author is clearly on the side of the tigers as she states: “Even if you added up all the people that sick tigers were forced to eat, you wouldn’t get close to the number of tigers killed by people.” She introduces ideas as to why Sundarbans tigers eat so many people, including the theory, “When they attack people, perhaps they are trying to protect the land that they own. And maybe, as the ancient legend says, the tiger really is watching over the forest—for everyone’s benefit.” There are color photographs on every page, showing the landscape, people, and a variety of animals encountered, though glimpses of the tigers are fleeting. The author concludes with some statistics on tigers, information on organizations working to protect them, and a brief bibliography and index. The dramatic cover photo of the tiger will attract readers, and the lively prose will keep them engaged. An appealing science adventure. (Nonfiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-07704-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
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More by Sy Montgomery
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by Sy Montgomery ; illustrated by Tiffany Bozic
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by Sy Montgomery ; illustrated by Matt Patterson
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by Sy Montgomery ; illustrated by Rebecca Green
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