A page-turning medical mystery that makes a compelling case for following the facts.
Dr. John Snow, “the father of modern epidemiology,” discovers the cause of cholera.
Behind every great scientist is evidence. When cholera broke out in London in 1854, most people blamed the “bad, smelly air” for the rapid spread of the disease. The English physician Dr. John Snow had a “bold hypothesis.” He had noticed that cholera’s symptoms included vomiting and diarrhea, so the cause was likely what the victims had ingested rather than something airborne. All he needed was evidence! With expert pacing, Hopkinson sets up Snow’s story as a medical mystery and a race against time. The doctor follows clues, gathers information about where the deceased people lived, plots his data on maps, notices clusters of disease, interviews local residents, and discovers the one thing the dead had in common: They had drunk from the same water pump. Henderson’s moody, expressionistic art captures Londoners’ confusion and concern, while Dr. Snow’s urgent pace is marked with literal dashes across city maps. Hopkinson nimbly acknowledges when she’s using conjecture—“We can guess the hard questions he must ask”—and makes clear when she’s presenting evidence: “This fact is helpful.” At the story’s climax, Dr. Snow presents his findings at a neighborhood meeting, and in a final, incandescent spread, the water pump’s handle is removed—“a milestone in science, a shining moment in the long fight against epidemics.”
A page-turning medical mystery that makes a compelling case for following the facts. (the case against the Broad Street pump, more information on Dr. Snow, list of major infectious diseases and their causes, internet resources, books on Dr. Snow and on epidemics) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593426814
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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