“To Infinity and Beyond,” indeed.
A close look at the Hubble and a selection of the very distant astronomical wonders it has brought into view.
Placed into orbit in 1990, the HST “boldly ushered us into a new golden age of astronomy,” Dickinson and Read write, “and introduced us to a universe that is awesome, chaotic and mysterious.” The ensuing photo album makes good on these claims, beginning with lambent portraits of local planets and moons—often in revealing sequences to show changes over time—and going on to literally spectacular views of immense star clusters and nurseries, turbulent nebulas, swarms of galaxies clustered or colliding, and, in a final section titled “To Infinity and Beyond,” a panorama of the deepest star field yet observed. Most are Hubble photos, but the authors freely acknowledge that some, such as the recent (2019) first direct glimpse of a black hole, are not, or not entirely. Though most of the images come with descriptive notes, at one point the narrative is reduced to no more than identifying labels, which encourages lingering over the visual majesty on display. In an opening section, separate enough from the rest to have its own glossary, the authors describe each of the Hubble’s instruments and introduce other space telescopes. Though in essence a boiled-down version of Dickinson’s more-expansive Hubble’s Universe (second ed. 2017), there is more than enough here to sate young sky watchers with an appetite for jaw-dropping space photography.
“To Infinity and Beyond,” indeed. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-2281-0233-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
This survey of body systems tries too hard for a broad audience, mixing paragraphs of lines like, “Without bones we would just be bags of goop,” printed in slightly larger type, with brief but specific discussions of osteoblasts, myofibrils, peristalsis and like parts and functions. Seven single or double gatefolds allow the many simple, brightly painted illustrations space to range from thumbnail size to forearm-length. Many of the visuals offer inside and outside views of a multicultural cast—of children, by and large, though the sexual organs are shown on headless trunks and the final picture provides a peek inside a pregnant mother. Even if younger readers don’t stumble over the vocabulary while older ones reject the art as babyish, this isn’t going to make the top shelf; information is presented in a scattershot way, the text and pictures don’t consistently correspond—three muscles needed to kick a soccer ball are named but not depicted, for instance, and an entire tongue is labeled “taste bud”—and the closing resource list is both print only and partly adult. (glossary, bibliography, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7091-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
It’s not exactly an untold tale, but this new telling is worth the read.
A solid new entry in Mann’s exemplary tour of the modern world’s architectural wonders (The Taj Mahal, 2008, etc.).
Even sticking to the basic facts, as the author does, the story of how Lady Liberty was conceived, constructed and bestowed makes a compelling tale. Pointing to the disparate long-term outcomes of the American and French revolutions to explain why the U.S. system of government became so admired in France, Mann takes the statue from Edouard Laboulaye’s pie-in-the-sky proposal at a dinner party in 1865 to the massive opening ceremonies in 1886. Along the way, she highlights the techniques that sculptor Bartholdi used to scale up his ambitious model successfully and the long struggle against public indifference and skepticism on both sides of the Atlantic to fund both the monument itself and its base. Witschonke supplements an array of period photos and prints with full-page or larger painted reconstructions of Bartholdi’s studio and workshop, of the statue’s piecemeal creation and finally of the Lady herself, properly copper colored as she initially was, presiding over New York’s crowded harbor. As she still does.
It’s not exactly an untold tale, but this new telling is worth the read. (measurements, bibliography, "The New Colossus") (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-931414-43-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Mikaya Press
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
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