A sparkling accomplishment.
There are diamonds in those hills—or are there?
In November 1870, Kentucky cousins Philip Arnold and John Slack strode into a San Francisco gold and silver mine investor’s office with a bag full of diamonds in the rough. They claimed they’d found a diamond mine, the first one ever located in the American West, though they were evasive, saying only that it was somewhere in “Indian territory.” By the time they agreed to reveal its exact location in 1872, they’d attracted the attention of a congressman, two pirates who stole gold for the Confederate cause during the Civil War, and engineer Henry Janin, a thoroughly reputable mine inspector. Though Janin’s initial assessment of the diamond field concluded it was genuine, it was, in fact, a meticulously planned fraud. In the second half of the book, Sheinkin rolls the tape back, walking readers through the Great Diamond Hoax and its aftermath point by point, like a magician revealing how a trick is done. Chad’s short, interspersed black-and-white comics dramatize high-stakes moments. The book encourages readers to think critically about scams and why people fall for them. The main events are put into the context of the late Reconstruction era and the early Gilded Aged, exploring the impact of the white historical figures and events such as the Indian Appropriations Act of 1871. This analysis is seamlessly folded into a rollicking—and well-researched—adventure story.
A sparkling accomplishment. (cast of characters, author’s note, source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-13)Pub Date: tomorrow
ISBN: 9781250265746
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
Contentwise, an arbitrary assortment…but sure to draw fans of comics, of science, or of both.
Flash, Batman, and other characters from the DC Comics universe tackle supervillains and STEM-related topics and sometimes, both.
Credited to 20 writers and illustrators in various combinations, the 10 episodes invite readers to tag along as Mera and Aquaman visit oceanic zones from epipelagic to hadalpelagic; Supergirl helps a young scholar pick a science-project topic by taking her on a tour of the solar system; and Swamp Thing lends Poison Ivy a hand to describe how DNA works (later joining Swamp Kid to scuttle a climate-altering scheme by Arcane). In other episodes, various costumed creations explain the ins and outs of diverse large- and small-scale phenomena, including electricity, atomic structure, forensic techniques, 3-D printing, and the lactate threshold. Presumably on the supposition that the characters will be more familiar to readers than the science, the minilectures tend to start from simple basics, but the figures are mostly both redrawn to look more childlike than in the comics and identified only in passing. Drawing styles and page designs differ from chapter to chapter but not enough to interrupt overall visual unity and flow—and the cast is sufficiently diverse to include roles for superheroes (and villains) of color like Cyborg, Kid Flash, and the Latina Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz. Appended lists of websites and science-based YouTube channels, plus instructions for homespun activities related to each episode, point inspired STEM-winders toward further discoveries.
Contentwise, an arbitrary assortment…but sure to draw fans of comics, of science, or of both. (Graphic nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77950-382-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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