Worthy and well meant, if readable only in small doses, this compendium gathers advice and personal testimony from a host of active writers about ways to cut down on energy use and waste. With some exceptions, such as Robert Lipsyte’s Ten Rules to Save the Planet (“Never flush the toilet. When it gets hot in the house, walk around naked”), the entries are earnest in tone and practical (if repetitive) in content: Carry water and lunches in reusable containers; find alternatives to plastic bags; set up a community or school “swap shop.” For would-be activists, Susan Cooper offers the tried and true “Ask questions; create guilt,” and Bruce Balan cranks that up a notch: “Adults are destroying your world. So let them know about it. Shout it out. Get in their face.” The one- to three-page statements march on relentlessly to the large annotated list of websites at the end. The contributors’ names may draw well-read audiences, but the project-oriented approach in the likes of Anne Jankeliowitch’s 50 Ways to Save the Earth (2008), illustrated by Philippe Bourseiller, provides clearer blueprints for promoting a green agenda. (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: March 24, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-73721-0
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Yearling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In this abridged and illustrated version of his Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), Bryson invites a younger crowd of seekers on a tour of time, space and science—from the Big Bang and the birth of the solar system to the growth and study of life on Earth. The single-topic spreads are adorned with cartoon portraits of scientists, explorers and (frequently) the author himself, which go with small nature photos and the occasional chart or cutaway view. Though occasionally subject to sweeping and dubious statements—“There’s no chance we could ever make a journey through the solar system”—Bryson makes a genial guide (“for you to be here now, trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to come together in a complicated and obliging manner to create you”), and readers with even a flicker of curiosity in their souls about Big Ideas will come away sharing his wonder at living in such a “fickle and eventful universe.” (index) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-73810-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
Remarking that ``nothing about the weather is very simple,'' Simon goes on to describe how the sun, atmosphere, earth's rotation, ground cover, altitude, pollution, and other factors influence it; briefly, he also tells how weather balloons gather information. Even for this outstanding author, it's a tough, complex topic, and he's not entirely successful in simplifying it; moreover, the import of the striking uncaptioned color photos here isn't always clear. One passage—``Cumulus clouds sometimes build up into towering masses called cumulus congestus, or swelling cumulus, which may turn into cumulonimbus clouds''—is superimposed on a blue-gray, cloud-covered landscape. But which kind of clouds are these? Another photo, in blue-black and white, shows what might be precipitation in the upper atmosphere, or rain falling on a darkened landscape, or...? Generally competent and certainly attractive, but not Simon's best. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-10546-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
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