Heartily inspiring.
Using a combination of poetic language and supplemental prose paragraphs, the author relates facts about the hearts and heartbeats of a dozen different animals—including human beings.
Bold, bright, full-color art accompanies each double-page spread. On the first, the image of what appears to be a mammal’s heart supports the artist’s bio, which notes the influence of mid-20th-century design and color. Accompanying it, 11 lines of text, displayed in center alignment, briefly describe a heart’s function and then dwell on the heartbeat as the “unmistakable sound of a tireless muscle….Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub.” That particular onomatopoeia is used for the heartbeats of an octopus, a python, and a human being. (Boyle doesn’t attempt this device for the heartbeat of an Etruscan pygmy shrew—an astonishing 1,500 beats per minute.) Each animal’s spread is worth a good deal of attention, both for the information itself and for the use of different kinds of poetic devices. There is humor, too; no one should miss the funny rhymes about the “relaxed” camel and its “untaxed” heart. Although comparisons among an astonishing range of heartbeats and types of hearts are part of the fun, the sheer amount of words, concepts, and literary play makes this perhaps better suited for reference—in terms of both science and language arts—than as a one-sitting read. Some readers may be taken aback at the omission of bears from the list of the “only four mammals in North America that hibernate.”
Heartily inspiring. (author’s note, resources) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8075-3190-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
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)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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