A magical addition to the STEM shelf.
A precocious fairy promotes the fundamentals of science in this picture book that informs as well as it entertains.
Esther is a long-suffering fairy skeptic stuck in a world where everyone around her believes in the power of magic. Esther, who wholeheartedly believes in fact over fiction, is convinced fairy dust is dandruff, foggy omens are just condensation, and that gravity is in fact the law. When a tree begins to wilt, the young fairies all try their best wizardry to bring the sapling back to life, but Esther deduces the harm done to the tree through an experiment based on the scientific method. After discovering that the young tree merely needs sunlight, her friends are now inspired to ask questions. Of course Esther has a home library of books and materials to put them on the road to becoming good scientists. The colorful digital illustrations offer whimsical details as purple-pigtailed, brown-skinned Esther and a bird sidekick work to promote science. Speech balloons add extra humor. Throughout the book, actual scientific principles are introduced to young readers in a way that’s both holistic and fun, and the backmatter includes a seed-germination experiment. Fans of Ada Twist, Scientist, by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts (2016), and Charlotte the Scientist Is Squished, by Camille Andros and illustrated by Brianne Farley (2017), will enjoy Esther’s tale.
A magical addition to the STEM shelf. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-58139-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
An unusual offering for the young geology nerd.
This British import is an imaginatively constructed sequence of images that show a white boy examining a city pavement, clearly in London, and the sights he would see if he were able to travel down to the Earth’s core and then back again to the surface.
The geologic layers are depicted in 10 vertical spreads that require a 90-degree turn to be read and include endpapers, which open out, concertina fashion, to show the interior of the Earth to its core. Beneath the urban setting are drains, pipes, and artifacts of urban infrastructure. Below that, archaeological relics are revealed. An Underground train speeds by, and below it, a stalactite-encrusted cave yawns. Deep below the Earth’s crust, magma, the Earth’s mantle, and the inner core are shown. Turn the page to start going up again, back through the mantle to the crust, where precious minerals are revealed, then fossils, tree roots, and animal burrows, ending with the same boy in the English countryside. The painted, stenciled, and collaged illustrations are full-bleed, and the tones graduate pleasantly from light colors at the surface of the Earth to rich pinks, yellows, and oranges as readers near the Earth’s core. The text is informative, if lacking in poetry, including such nuggets as “earthworms are expert recyclers, eating dead plants in the soil.”
An unusual offering for the young geology nerd. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68297-136-9
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Words & Pictures
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
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