A solid start to a new science series.
Ms. Frizzle and her magical bus have some competition.
Ball, the host of PBS’ Design Squad and Design Squad Nation, launches a new book series with this title. Nate himself, as a white, lab-coat–clad “daredevil scientist,” leads his team of investigators—Asian Wendy; white, glasses-wearing Felix; Braden, who is black and sports a sweater vest and bow tie; and Rosa, who has long, straight brown hair and light brown skin. The kids gather at the Science Museum on Saturday mornings an hour before opening, when all the doors turn into portals to other worlds. In order to return to the museum, the kids must answer the investigation questions on their exit tickets. In this outing, they shrink to the size of molecules, form a cloud, rain, flow from the river to the ocean, evaporate, form a snowflake, precipitate, and then soak down into the ground into an underground river. Along the way, readers are introduced to solid science vocabulary and concepts, most of which are explained in excerpts from Braden’s journal. The pencil-and–digital paint illustrations will whet readers’ appetites for their own adventures, though the depictions of molecules are unlikely to help kids understand them. Overall, it’s visually less cluttered than the Magic School Bus books; the characters still speak in dialogue bubbles, but there aren’t quite as many, and the flow of the conversation is easier to follow.
A solid start to a new science series. (Informational picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-235740-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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