Vivid and perceptive.
A soaring tribute to the perceptive naturalist and writer who jump-started the modern environmental movement.
While tracing Rachel Carson’s all-too-brief life from early woodland walks with her mother, dog, and notebook to later fame as a bestselling nature writer with an unsurpassed ability to communicate her observations and concerns to wide audiences, Hannigan repeatedly appeals to readers to follow her example by using each of their senses in turn to see, hear, smell, feel, and taste the natural wonders that are all around. Finishing her final book, Silent Spring, became a race against time. Although she didn’t live to see the effect the book has had on successive generations (“It ignited a revolution,” the author writes, before going on to list some of the major legislative acts it prompted), some sense of its importance comes out in the historical note at the end. Substantial quoted passages from several of Carson’s works that ably capture her eloquent style are tucked into Hickey’s equally lyrical views of the young naturalist taking nature walks alone or with her young grandnephew (later co-author) Roger, wading in shallows, or sitting at her writing desk generating images of ocean wildlife in splashy floods. Her environmental concerns have only grown more cogent with time.
Vivid and perceptive. (timeline, bibliography, information on DDT, glossary, suggested activities) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: March 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781662680571
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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 pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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