Appealingly and disgustingly informative.
What’s the worst possible job you can imagine?
The team that brought you Dung for Dinner (2020) follows up with a similarly gross look at unpleasant but often necessary occupations. Throughout history, some have been tasked with dealing with blood, sickness, death, vomit, pee, and poop, not just as parents or family members but as lifelong jobs. In this roundup, Virnig addresses readers directly; her playful prose centers on the gritty and gross details. Each of the 16 chapters covers a different specialty, including ancient Egyptian mummy makers, leech collectors, barber-surgeons, forensic entomologists, modern-day medical caretakers, and people who excavate, dissect, and watch over bodies to confirm that death has occurred. She describes an ancient Roman banquet as a “puke party” that someone has to clean up, which gives her the opportunity to talk about slavery in that society. Her chatty narrative is especially sympathetic to the people who collect poop: gongfermors in the Middle Ages, saltpeter men who extracted a vital ingredient for gunpowder from outhouses in the 17th century, toshers who roamed Victorian London sewers, Chinese laborers who harvested guano in Peru in the 19th century, and Dalit scavengers in present-day India. Briggs’ humorous sepia cartoon illustrations, often of people doing their jobs, add to the appeal. Full of the eww factor, the selection and presentation here are sure to engage readers.
Appealingly and disgustingly informative. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781250762351
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Godwin Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Contentwise, an arbitrary assortment…but sure to draw fans of comics, of science, or of both.
Flash, Batman, and other characters from the DC Comics universe tackle supervillains and STEM-related topics and sometimes, both.
Credited to 20 writers and illustrators in various combinations, the 10 episodes invite readers to tag along as Mera and Aquaman visit oceanic zones from epipelagic to hadalpelagic; Supergirl helps a young scholar pick a science-project topic by taking her on a tour of the solar system; and Swamp Thing lends Poison Ivy a hand to describe how DNA works (later joining Swamp Kid to scuttle a climate-altering scheme by Arcane). In other episodes, various costumed creations explain the ins and outs of diverse large- and small-scale phenomena, including electricity, atomic structure, forensic techniques, 3-D printing, and the lactate threshold. Presumably on the supposition that the characters will be more familiar to readers than the science, the minilectures tend to start from simple basics, but the figures are mostly both redrawn to look more childlike than in the comics and identified only in passing. Drawing styles and page designs differ from chapter to chapter but not enough to interrupt overall visual unity and flow—and the cast is sufficiently diverse to include roles for superheroes (and villains) of color like Cyborg, Kid Flash, and the Latina Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz. Appended lists of websites and science-based YouTube channels, plus instructions for homespun activities related to each episode, point inspired STEM-winders toward further discoveries.
Contentwise, an arbitrary assortment…but sure to draw fans of comics, of science, or of both. (Graphic nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77950-382-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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