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CORAL REEF

Name: CORAL REEF
Author: Mary E. Cerullo
ISBN: 0-525-65193-4

A CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS

by Mary E. Cerullo & photographed by Jeffrey L. Rotman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1996

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Science writing that is vivid, precise, and rich in detail. Cerullo (Lobsters, 1994, etc.) is a storyteller who weaves facts into a compelling description of life in the coral reef throughout the day and night. She uses the analogy of the city to explain how inhabitants of the coral reef have specialized to share and exploit the resources available and discusses adaptations of color, diet, daily schedule, and behavior. Full-color underwater photographs show the varied inhabitants: daytime swimmers like the vibrantly colored angelfish, twilight predators like lionfish, and nighttime specialists like the brittle stars who ``light up at night.'' Outstanding. (glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10+)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-525-65193-4

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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WEATHER

by Seymour Simon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1993

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Remarking that ``nothing about the weather is very simple,'' Simon goes on to describe how the sun, atmosphere, earth's rotation, ground cover, altitude, pollution, and other factors influence it; briefly, he also tells how weather balloons gather information. Even for this outstanding author, it's a tough, complex topic, and he's not entirely successful in simplifying it; moreover, the import of the striking uncaptioned color photos here isn't always clear. One passage—``Cumulus clouds sometimes build up into towering masses called cumulus congestus, or swelling cumulus, which may turn into cumulonimbus clouds''—is superimposed on a blue-gray, cloud-covered landscape. But which kind of clouds are these? Another photo, in blue-black and white, shows what might be precipitation in the upper atmosphere, or rain falling on a darkened landscape, or...? Generally competent and certainly attractive, but not Simon's best. (Nonfiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-688-10546-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
CLIMATE ACTION
by Seymour Simon

- BOOK REVIEW
DINOSAURS
by Seymour Simon

- BOOK REVIEW
INSECTS
by Seymour Simon

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HOOT

by Carl Hiaasen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2002

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The straight-arrow son of a maybe-federal agent (he’s not quite sure) turns eco-terrorist in this first offering for kids from one of detective fiction’s funniest novelists. Fans of Hiaasen’s (Basket Case, 2001, etc.) novels for adults may wonder how well his profane and frequently kinky writing will adapt to a child’s audience; the answer is, remarkably well. Roy Eberhardt has recently arrived in Florida; accustomed to being the new kid after several family moves, he is more of an observer than a participant. When he observes a bare-footed boy running through the subdivisions of Coconut Grove, however, he finds himself compelled to follow and, later, to ally himself with the strange boy called Mullet Fingers. Meanwhile, the dimwitted but appealingly dogged Officer Delinko finds himself compelled to crack the case of the mysterious vandals at the construction site of a new Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House—it couldn’t have anything to do with those cute burrowing owls, could it? The plot doesn’t overwhelm with surprises; even the densest readers will soon suss out the connections between Mullet Fingers, the owls, and Mother Paula’s steadfast denial of the owls’ existence. The fun lies in Hiaasen’s trademark twisted characters, including Dana Matherson, the class bully who regularly beats up on Roy and whose unwitting help Roy wickedly enlists; Beatrice Leep, Mullet Fingers’s fiercely loyal sister and co-conspirator; Curly, Mother Paula’s hilariously inept foreman; and Roy’s equally straight-arrow parents, who encourage him to do the right thing without exactly telling him how. Roy is rather surprisingly engaging, given his utter and somewhat unnatural wholesomeness; it’s his kind of determined innocence that sees through the corruption and compromises of the adult world to understand what must be done to make things right. If the ending is somewhat predictable, it is also entirely satisfying—Hoot is, indeed, a hoot. (Fiction. 10-14)