Professionals and parents can probably pull a few interesting activities and anecdotes from this book, but the individual...
Ralph Nader, Khalil Gibran and Danny Thomas: What do they have in common?
They are Lebanese-Americans mentioned in this uneven compendium of facts and activities that explores the history of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa. The title is misleading, as such groups as Chaldeans, Berbers and Sephardic Jews, among others, are included, even though they do not believe that they are Arab. Despite this, exposing American readers to the great religious and cultural diversity of these 16 countries and the Palestinian territories and their immigrants is a worthwhile endeavor. Unfortunately, the craft instructions, games, recipes, dance, language-learning and writing projects vary in the strength of their connection to “Arab” culture. For example, Palestinian-American writer Naomi Shihab Nye is featured, and the related activity focuses on her poem “Every Cat Has a Story,” which is tied to her writing about “everyday events and ordinary events”—not to her writing about the Middle East. “Design a National Safety Month Poster,” strangely, attempts to connect Ralph Nader to the legendary phoenix. The diagrams are useful, and some of the design elements are attractive, but the other illustrations are amateurish.
Professionals and parents can probably pull a few interesting activities and anecdotes from this book, but the individual parts do not add up to a cohesive whole. (resources, bibliography, index [not seen]) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61374-017-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A generally useful and easily readable effort with lots of practical advice, especially appropriate for gradeschoolers and...
With so many children being diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorders, numerous new advice books are becoming available. This is one of the more useful ones.
With a broad intended audience of 8- to 13-year-olds, this effort risks being too simple for older readers or too complex for the youngest ones. Most of the time it finds middle ground, although it definitely leans toward being most appropriate for the younger end of that range. Somewhat juvenile ideas such as crafting a crown to be worn by a person speaking (to focus attention there) and a section on appropriately using the bathroom will likely offend older readers. Beginning with a brief description of autism-spectrum disorder, it then systematically moves through some of the more challenging aspects of the disorder. It explains in clear language strategies children can train themselves to employ to improve functioning in the neurotypical world and why these might be useful. These ideas range from watching videotapes of their own interactions with others and personal-hygiene advice to ways to identify impending meltdowns and avoid or minimize them. A lot of the advice is highlighted in color, and additional text boxes that describe children with ASD are printed on brightly contrasting, perhaps distracting, backgrounds.
A generally useful and easily readable effort with lots of practical advice, especially appropriate for gradeschoolers and their caregivers. (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-57542-385-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
Unabashed edutainment, not deep but glossy as that iceberg’s surface.
Shaved-down lists of, as the authors put it, “everything the world has to offer,” stocked with eye-widening photos and other embellishments.
Catering to patrons of the Limited-Attention–Span Theater, the authors drop 50 eight-item listicles—all bearing catchy titles like “Eight Ultimate Toilets,” “Eight Righteous Rock Formations,” or “Eight Fearless Foods”—in no particular order, inviting browsers at the outset to dive in anywhere. Human works and natural ones get roughly equal time. Each list fills a single double-page spread, with round- or rectangular-framed photographs of diverse size placed on brightly colored fill, interspersed with one- or two-sentence captions that really bring the fun. Ready to ride Dubai’s “Leap of Faith” water slide? “Climb to the top of a Maya temple replica, then drop 60 feet (18.3 m) before shooting through a clear tunnel in a lagoon stocked with sharks.” For occasional changes of pace, seven list items get expanded ganders on following pages, including, for instance, the “Sailing Stones” of Death Valley (“Eight Wackiest Weather Events”), “Rock Star” volcanologist John Stevenson (“Eight Extreme Occupations”), and, from “Eight Awesome Things in Antarctica,” a rare view of a flipped iceberg’s underside.
Unabashed edutainment, not deep but glossy as that iceberg’s surface. (index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2337-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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