A thorough, detailed compendium of most everything readers will want and need to know about being in the outdoors.
The subtitle of this book presents a hard challenge to live up to, but this guide manages it.
Divided into five main sections—“Planning and Preparation,” “Hiking,” “Set Up Camp,” “Flora and Fauna,” and “Survival”—each subject area contains chapters that impart the specific skills and knowledge needed for readers to feel comfortable and confident in the outdoors. Skills such as fire-building, finding your direction with the sun and stars, using a compass, knowing what to pack, first aid, birding, identifying plants, recognizing animal tracks, understanding geology, and many others are presented in short, engaging snippets. These extensively color-illustrated informational segments covering the geographic regions of the U.S. are followed by activities labeled “Try It,” “Track It,” and “Take It to the Next Level” that present readers with hands-on opportunities to practice their newly learned skills as well as space to write down notes. With its metal-bound cover corners, a sewn rather than glued binding, and printed rulers—in both inches and centimeters—on the back cover, this is a book designed to be taken into the outdoors and used. The writing is engagingly informative and accurate without being overwhelming. Backmatter includes a list of 101 achievements to track that will help give a concrete sense of accomplishment, boosting confidence.
A thorough, detailed compendium of most everything readers will want and need to know about being in the outdoors. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-adult)Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-23084-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Odd Dot
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
A solid base hit, with guidance on the great American pastime—and life itself.
Actor Renna, best known for his role in the 1993 film The Sandlot, offers baseball-themed anecdotes and affirmations.
Heartfelt reminders that life’s a marathon, not a sprint, may be familiar, but many young readers will find them revelatory. The author also stresses that failure is just as much a part of life as success, encourages children to embrace individuality and work hard despite being the underdog, and emphasizes that practice shows commitment and “prepares you for the big game or the test.” All these lessons will be relatable to young people, and many are supported by real-life stories: basketball superstar Michael Jordan’s short-lived stint in minor league baseball, an unexpected victory during Game One of the 2015 World Series, and Renna’s willingness to swallow his fear when, as a young teen, he was handed a new script just an hour before shooting a pivotal scene in The Sandlot. Each tidbit stands alone, but taken together, all 20 tenets provide a lively road map to life. The colorful spot art features images of diverse young baseball players, plus some visually appealing double-page spreads filled with movement and action. White space is used thoughtfully, allowing readers to reflect on how these words of wisdom might apply to them.
A solid base hit, with guidance on the great American pastime—and life itself. (Informational picture book. 7-11)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593754870
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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