Uneven but worthwhile.
Crafts projects made from simple materials echo aspects of iconic structures from Stonehenge and the Sagrada Família to a Zen garden.
Confusingly switching from addressing children in some passages to adult caregivers in others, Seblon opens each entry with a description of the chosen structure alongside a not-always-helpfully angled photo. She adds several discussion questions, then goes on to pair terse instructions with photos or diagrams of the neatly assembled project at successive stages. The “little hands” (as she puts it) that are visible in some pictures will generally need help from adult hands to finish most of these projects—the rounded river pebbles prescribed for Stonehenge, for example, will be hard to balance atop one another, and the cardboard walls for the “Tower block box” inspired by Le Corbusier’s brutalist Cité Radieuse (“Radiant City”) will require more than the suggested safety scissors. Several will also require waiting for paint, glue, or papier-mâché to dry partway through before they can be finished off. Still, even if many of the completed models don’t resemble the buildings that supposedly inspired them, they will require enough effort to satisfy hands-on builders, and more than a few could potentially exhibit spectacular forms and colors. The skin hues of photographed hands and Sae-Heng’s small figures of painted children are diverse.
Uneven but worthwhile. (list of buildings) (Nonfiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780500660249
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
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
More thoughtful, sometimes exhilarating encounters with nature.
In a new entry in the Over and Under series, a paddleboarder glimpses humpback whales leaping, floats over a populous kelp forest, and explores life on a beach and in a tide pool.
In this tale inspired by Messner’s experiences in Monterey Bay in California, a young tan-skinned narrator, along with their light-skinned mom and tan-skinned dad, observes in quiet, lyrical language sights and sounds above and below the sea’s serene surface. Switching perspectives and angles of view and often leaving the family’s red paddleboards just tiny dots bobbing on distant swells, Neal’s broad seascapes depict in precise detail bat stars and anchovies, kelp bass, and sea otters going about their business amid rocky formations and the swaying fronds of kelp…and, further out, graceful moon jellies and—thrillingly—massive whales in open waters beneath gliding pelicans and other shorebirds. After returning to the beach at day’s end to search for shells and to spot anemones and decorator crabs, the child ends with nighttime dreams of stars in the sky meeting stars in the sea. Appended nature notes on kelp and 21 other types of sealife fill in details about patterns and relationships in this rich ecosystem. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
More thoughtful, sometimes exhilarating encounters with nature. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-79720-347-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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