Clearly and encouragingly presented; superb for any outdoorsy young person.
The fifth entry in the Outdoor School series introduces readers to the world of gardening.
Following the same format as the previous volumes, this book combines hands-on projects with comprehensive plant guides and information on how to make a garden. The metal-reinforced corners and heavy-duty, flexible, water-resistant cover encourage readers to take the book outside. The information is divided into six color-coded parts. Part I introduces readers to the basic elements of gardening: plants’ needs, necessary tools, and basic garden plans. Part II provides an overview of select herbs and spices, their uses, and suggestions for teas and culinary combinations. Part III delves into vegetables, dividing their myriad types into easily understandable categories, such as leaves, roots, tomatoes, melons, and grains. Part IV covers fruits and nuts, and Part V addresses flowers and succulents. Each section concludes with a plant guide, which includes growing heights, spacing, and water needs as well as quirky and interesting facts (for example, readers learn that avocado ice cream is popular in Brazil). Part VI explores the art of garden design and discusses hedges, ground covers, and water plants. Throughout the book, readers will find activities labeled “Try It,” “Track It,” and “Take It to the Next Level” that encourage active participation. Copious attractive full-color illustrations show both individual plants and garden scenes.
Clearly and encouragingly presented; superb for any outdoorsy young person. (101 gardening achievements checklist, index) (Nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781250262851
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Odd Dot
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge.
With an amped-up sense of wonder, the Science Guy surveys the natural universe.
Starting from first principles like the scientific method, Nye and his co-author marvel at the “Amazing Machine” that is the human body then go on to talk up animals, plants, evolution, physics and chemistry, the quantum realm, geophysics, and climate change. They next venture out into the solar system and beyond. Along with tallying select aspects and discoveries in each chapter, the authors gather up “Massively Important” central concepts, send shoutouts to underrecognized women scientists like oceanographer Marie Tharp, and slip in directions for homespun experiments and demonstrations. They also challenge readers to ponder still-unsolved scientific posers and intersperse rousing quotes from working scientists about how exciting and wide open their respective fields are. If a few of those fields, like the fungal kingdom, get short shrift (one spare paragraph notwithstanding), readers are urged often enough to go look things up for themselves to kindle a compensatory habit. Aside from posed photos of Nye and a few more of children (mostly presenting as White) doing science-y things, the full-color graphic and photographic images not only reflect the overall “get this!” tone but consistently enrich the flow of facts and reflections. “Our universe is a strange and surprising place,” Nye writes. “Stay curious.” Words to live by.
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge. (contributors, art credits, selected bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4676-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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