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WATER

Name: WATER
Author: Catherine Barr
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2886-1

HOW WE CAN PROTECT OUR FRESHWATER

by Catherine Barr ; illustrated by Christiane Engel ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

Confusing in spots and a bit dry for the top shelf but catches the wave of concern for an increasingly scarce resource.

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An earnest call to appreciate and conserve our planet’s precious fluid.

Along with describing water’s origins in Earth’s early history, tracing the ever flowing water cycle, and closing with suggestions for shrinking our “water footprint” by wasting less around the house, Barr surveys ways we both use and misuse fresh water—perceptively noting, for example, that dams turn it into a dandy source of renewable power but also often destroy natural habitats. She also promotes the benefits of piping clean water to dry settlements in “poorer countries,” specifically for the girls and women who are otherwise forced to carry it from remote sources. A claim that only a “tiny part” of the water we use is recycled is at best badly phrased, though (isn’t all water recycled?), and she confusingly uses green water to describe not algae pollution (the most common usage of the term) but water taken up by plants from the soil. She also delivers her lecture in generalizations that are less likely to motivate young readers than splashier treatments of the topic like Antonia Banyard and Paula Ayer’s Water Wow! (2016), illustrated by Belle Wuthrich. Still, the message is worth the urgency, and Engel’s bright artwork, which runs to expansive landscapes dotted with small images of wild flora and fauna or diverse human figures in both urban and country settings, shows what’s at stake. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Confusing in spots and a bit dry for the top shelf but catches the wave of concern for an increasingly scarce resource. (websites) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-5362-2886-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
WILDLIFE CROSSINGS
by Catherine Barr ; illustrated by Christiane Engel

- BOOK REVIEW
50 REASONS TO LOVE ANIMALS
by Catherine Barr ; illustrated by Hanako Clulow

- BOOK REVIEW
THE STORY OF INVENTIONS
by Catherine Barr & Steve Williams ; illustrated by Amy Husband

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I AM GRAVITY

by Henry Herz ; illustrated by Mercè López ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2024

An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.

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An introduction to gravity.

The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.

An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: April 15, 2024

ISBN: 9781668936849

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tilbury House

Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
edited by Henry Herz

- BOOK REVIEW
WINK
edited by Henry Herz ; illustrated by Adam Gustavson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HITHERTO SECRET EXPERIMENTS OF MARIE CURIE
edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Henry Herz

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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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)