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FLYING DEEP

Name: FLYING DEEP
Author: Michelle Cusolito
ISBN: 978-1-58089-811-9

CLIMB INSIDE DEEP-SEA SUBMERSIBLE ALVIN

by Michelle Cusolito ; illustrated by Nicole Wong ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2018

An appealing, exhilarating, and informative vicarious journey of discovery.

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Readers join an Alvin pilot and scientists in an exciting journey as they voyage down deep to the ocean floor to collect samples and conduct research.

Named for Allyn Vine, who helped pioneer deep submergence research and technology for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Alvin helped in the exploration of the Titanic wreckage in 1986. “Imagine you’re the pilot of Alvin, a deep-sea submersible barely big enough for three,” the engaging text begins. Cusolito’s inviting, “you are there” narration puts readers inside the submersible to discover what one wears, eats, and talks about during a typical eight-hour journey to learn about life inhabiting the deepest realms of our oceans. How do you breathe? What kind of music might you listen to? How do you see when you “enter thick blackness”? The answers to those and many other questions are answered. The voyage down is not without perils: “Fishing nets or anchor chains could entangle Alvin and trap you.” On the seafloor, “Eerie spires loom. Black smokers blast scalding water and poisonous, sooty particles from deep inside Earth.” The digitally created illustrations evoke the dark mysteriousness of the deep ocean and depict the crew as a man of color, a white woman, and a white man. Endmatter explains how Alvin works and describes the author’s and illustrator’s research.

An appealing, exhilarating, and informative vicarious journey of discovery. (glossary, further reading) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 22, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-58089-811-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9781728271170

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

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by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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I AM GRAVITY

by Henry Herz ; illustrated by Mercè López ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2024

An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.

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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)