Frequently asked questions about the weather are answered by the author who created Earthlings: Inside and Out (1999). The fussy layout, with four or more colored boxes on each double-page spread, and fanciful illustrations moving in and out of the pages, makes this a quick pick-up for casual browsing, but a difficult read. Wyatt tries to explain hard questions with brief answers. For example, she tackles “Why is it so hot in some places and so cold in others?” in five brief paragraphs, saying: “Whether you freeze or fry depends on a lot of things.” She lists how close you are to the equator, and whether you live near a large body of water. On the next page she indicates “mountains can make the weather wetter—or drier—than nearby areas.” But never clarifies the effect wet and dry have on temperature. She concludes: “So where you live has a lot to do with how hot or cold—and how rainy or dry—it is.” The illustrations by newcomer Share are glossy and often humorous, but they don't support the text. For example, for the question above, he shows a globe with a snow-suited child standing at the Arctic and a penguin with swimming trunks on a recliner near Mexico. A side bar shows a thermometer with a separate question, and the companion page shows red and blue cloud boxers bumping, and a mountain with rain on one side and dry land on the other. Other pages show flying penguins, toilets, tires, and parrots as well as camels in baseball caps. It's goofy, but why? Colorful and clever, but hard to understand. (glossary, cloud chart, extreme weather guide, snow chart, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-55074-582-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Simon tackles his latest natural disaster in trademark but not very modern style. Information on hurricanes is clearly presented but poorly organized, and lacks any sense of drama or story. Aimed at the same age group as Dorothy Souza’s Hurricanes (1996) and Patricia Lauber’s Hurricanes: Earth’s Mightiest Storms, this falls short of both, often going into too much pedantic detail—the wind speeds of tropical depressions versus tropical storms—while failing to put needed perspective on some of the more eye-popping statistics. A hurricane can move more than a million cubic miles of atmosphere per second—but the naked numbers are essentially meaningless to students who think of millions in terms of ballplayers’ salaries and can’t imagine cubic miles at all. Photos of smashed houses and boats in front yards add excitement, but others—plain clouds?—detract; some are very grainy when blown up to the requisite full page. Formulaic and a numbing read-aloud. (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-688-16291-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2003
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