A vision of STEM education as a free-wheeling rumpus.
In this simple concept book, eager kitties scramble to design and build a wind-driven robot.
Confronted with a table full of craft supplies, the “twitchy team” of furballs scrambles to gather cardboard boxes, cones, tubes, and wheels and then assemble the “motley mix of materials” into a working robot. In the lively cartoon illustrations, Harney’s cute, big-eyed kittens dangle various items, some of which are outlined in red and labeled “square,” “rectangle,” “circle,” or “triangle,” and then try to fit them together in various ways. Their first effort results in a jumbled, nonfunctional “CATawampus,” but a bit of practical reconstruction that adds rollers to the bottom and a triangular sail on the top leads to a zooming “robot rumpus.” It all culminates in a mighty “Crash!” that leaves furry students and bits of bot scattered hither and yon. “But does it matter? NO! These creators are ready to…turn robot into rocket!” In an afterword that seems to be addressed as much to slightly older readers as the “out-of-the-box” teachers to whom this outing is dedicated, the author explains the differences between two- and three-dimensional shapes; among suggestions for follow-up activities, she also provides instructions for a potato battery—a useful but somewhat random inclusion.
A vision of STEM education as a free-wheeling rumpus. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781635927986
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Astra Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Earnest and silly by turns, it doesn’t quite capture the attention or the imagination, although surely its heart is in the...
Rhymed couplets convey the story of a girl who likes to build things but is shy about it. Neither the poetry nor Rosie’s projects always work well.
Rosie picks up trash and oddments where she finds them, stashing them in her attic room to work on at night. Once, she made a hat for her favorite zookeeper uncle to keep pythons away, and he laughed so hard that she never made anything publicly again. But when her great-great-aunt Rose comes to visit and reminds Rosie of her own past building airplanes, she expresses her regret that she still has not had the chance to fly. Great-great-aunt Rose is visibly modeled on Rosie the Riveter, the iconic, red-bandanna–wearing poster woman from World War II. Rosie decides to build a flying machine and does so (it’s a heli-o-cheese-copter), but it fails. She’s just about to swear off making stuff forever when Aunt Rose congratulates her on her failure; now she can go on to try again. Rosie wears her hair swooped over one eye (just like great-great-aunt Rose), and other figures have exaggerated hairdos, tiny feet and elongated or greatly rounded bodies. The detritus of Rosie’s collections is fascinating, from broken dolls and stuffed animals to nails, tools, pencils, old lamps and possibly an erector set. And cheddar-cheese spray.
Earnest and silly by turns, it doesn’t quite capture the attention or the imagination, although surely its heart is in the right place. (historical note) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0845-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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