Doubtless well meant but a superficial view of what science both is and does.
Motivated by the possibility of winning a prize, a second grade gadgeteer gets to work.
No sooner does young inventor Geraldine hear that there will be a prize for Best Second Grade Scientist in an unlikely classroom “science contest” than she races home to the boxes of random parts she’s extracted from various household appliances in the course of earlier tinkering. She proceeds to construct binoculars—using, somehow, old eyeglasses, “lenses” from a camera, cardboard tubes, and a mirror—that “will make it possible to see Mars from Earth!” (Um…should someone tell her she already can?) The illustrations depict Geraldine’s jumbled supplies as what looks like piles of dirt with the occasional electric plug or bottle sticking out, and most of her supposed inventions as visibly unworkable. Come the day, her contraption inexplicably stuns her classmates, winning out over a fishbowl ecosystem and a remote-controlled orrery (!), so (claims the narrator) proving to the class that she isn’t just a “mischievous daydreamer” but “a scientist!” (A false dichotomy if ever there was one.) Look for more credible STEM-centric role models (with worthier motives) in Andrea Beaty’s Ada Twist, Scientist, illustrated by David Roberts (2016); Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes’ Cece Loves Science, illustrated by Vashti Harrison (2018); and elsewhere. Geraldine and most of her class present as white; there are two students with darker skin.
Doubtless well meant but a superficial view of what science both is and does. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7643-5898-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Schiffer
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
An introduction to Venus that shows the planet at her most verbally and visually vivacious.
The solar system’s hottest diva struts her stuff.
The titular character’s claim that she’s the only goddess among the planetary gods may leave partisans of “Gaea” (technically not an official name, but still) feeling a little miffed. That aside, Venus still has plenty to crow about—from having higher surface temperatures than Mercury, to sporting a day that’s longer than her year, to spinning so the sun comes up in the west. Joining McAnulty’s other solar system soliloquies with the same engaging mix of facts and attitude (“Earth has clouds. I don’t…just have clouds. I’m smothered in them!”), Venus shines up from the page. She sports a proud expression on her broad face, whether hovering with windswept golden locks over a seashell like her Botticellian counterpart or floating in space, waving to her earthly and celestial fans with stubby limbs. Closing with a review quiz and a roundup of basic statistics, this animated planetary self-portrait will give young readers more reason than ever to pay proper attention to the brightest of our non-stellar astronomical neighbors.
An introduction to Venus that shows the planet at her most verbally and visually vivacious. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781250334473
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Odd Dot
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so...
A pro bono Twinkie of a book invites readers to fly off in a magic plane to bring clean water to our planet’s oceans, deserts, and brown children.
Following a confusingly phrased suggestion beneath a soft-focus world map to “touch the Earth. Now touch where you live,” a shake of the volume transforms it into a plane with eyes and feathered wings that flies with the press of a flat, gray “button” painted onto the page. Pressing like buttons along the journey releases a gush of fresh water from the ground—and later, illogically, provides a filtration device that changes water “from yucky to clean”—for thirsty groups of smiling, brown-skinned people. At other stops, a tap on the button will “help irrigate the desert,” and touching floating bottles and other debris in the ocean supposedly makes it all disappear so the fish can return. The 20 children Coh places on a globe toward the end are varied of skin tone, but three of the four young saviors she plants in the flier’s cockpit as audience stand-ins are white. The closing poem isn’t so openly parochial, though it seldom rises above vague feel-good sentiments: “Love the Earth, the moon and sun. / All the children can be one.”
“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so easy to clean the place up and give everyone a drink? (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-2083-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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