A flurry of bright if sketchy lines, tuned more for budding historians than for musicologists or musicians.
A quick history of one of the world’s most popular musical instruments.
Playing to younger audiences and broad enough to include riffs on the Mesopotamian oud, central Asian tanbur, and the nyatiti—though placing the last generically in “Africa” and otherwise sticking to European and American settings—Houran traces the guitar’s development. Starting with prehistory, her account ends, perhaps prematurely, with the boost electric guitars gave to rock and roll in the 1950s, but that accords with her general theme about how solutions were sought and found in recent times for making the instrument loud enough to be heard in ensembles. Quarles opens with a racially diverse group of people (one in a hijab) listening to recorded music but continues with scenes of musicians who vary in terms of race, gender, and historical era actually playing guitars of various design before closing with an equally inclusive if perfunctory gallery of six “Guitar Greats,” from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Nancy Wilson. Young strummers will find a more thorough overview of guitar types as well as how the instruments are made and played in Patricia Lakin’s Guitar (2021), but here nods to inventors from Antonio de Torres Jurado to George Beauchamp as well as a labeled diagram of parts and a cutaway view of an acoustic body offer at least some specifics about how basic guitar design evolved. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A flurry of bright if sketchy lines, tuned more for budding historians than for musicologists or musicians. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66267-005-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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