A love story to light and color, both educational and visually stunning.
An exploration of the workings and gifts of light.
Matter can be solid, liquid, or gas—but what about light? “What is it made of? How does it fit alongside everything else in the world?” Light is energy, and Wick’s photographs—huge, glossy, and crystal clear—glow with it. On the first spread, a shaft of light, a beaker of water, and some rocks appear almost mystical. Next, a close-up of a candle with its wick aflame is downright hypnotic; across from it, a sequence of small photos show a match striking a rock and flaring up. Later, another progression shows three incandescent sources—candle, bulb, sun—each in turn lighting a teacup-saucer-spoon arrangement that never varies in placement, effectively demonstrating how lighting alters color. The text examines incandescence, iridescence, refraction, the relationship between light waves and colors, pigments, magnification, heat, fire, and the sun—always clearly and in concert with spellbinding photographs. The radiant illustrations show color spectrums, light shining through and across various objects, almost-magic tricks of light, and demonstrations of light waves that use water as a visible symbol. Scrupulously, Wick acknowledges that photographs in books “cannot fully capture the purity and intensity of color that’s observed directly by the human eye”—but these will enrapture even readers too young to fully comprehend the science. A meticulous, adult-directed author’s note elaborating on the principles covered will help caregivers answer curious children’s further questions.
A love story to light and color, both educational and visually stunning. (Informational picture book. 6-12)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-439-16587-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A variety show brimming with esoteric and practical information.
Two youngsters embark on a journey peppered with history, trivia, and skits while teaching money lessons.
Meet Mellody and John, the young stars of this currency showcase. Their very first dialogue offers a taste of the intriguing information to come, from the ancient Mayans’ use of cacao beans as payment to the origins of the piggy bank. The book offers a chronologically and geographically broad timeline of the history of money, encompassing the past 3.9 billion years (starting with meteorite crashes that scattered metals—“the very first bank deposit”) and referencing practices across five continents. Readers will find themselves eagerly sharing the facts gleaned here, including the centuries-old origins of terms and expressions still used today. Mellody and John’s fun banter crucially reflects their experiences with money, such as their families’ differing attitudes toward allowances. Both are savers as well as givers, sharing stories about giving to charity. In one especially entertaining section, a cat and a bunny converse in money-related catchphrases that are separately defined at the bottom of each page. Stevens’ watercolors are appropriately realistic and appealing, whether depicting Mellody’s pretend bank or Elizabeth II’s butler ironing a 10-pound note. Messages about money’s use as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself, ensure that readers will think about their own purposes for their savings. Mellody and John are Black.
A variety show brimming with esoteric and practical information. (index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781536224719
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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