A warm portrait of a pioneering mind and spirit.
An impressive tribute to MIT’s first woman student, who went on to a distinguished career as an ecologist and food scientist.
“Home economics” may sound quaint today, but it was once an innovative concept, championed by Ellen Swallow (later Richards). Not only did she serve as the first president of the Home Economics Association, but along with being an early user of the term ecology, she also helped lead the way in bringing public health into the domestic sphere. Daniele sketches out her subject’s progress from a homeschooled farm child with a love of nature and an active mind to her 1871 entry into MIT at age 28; at first she wasn’t even allowed into the classrooms. From there, she went on to a grueling two-year study of pure and polluted water sources around Boston and similar investigations of unsanitary groceries—both of which led to new state pure food and water standards. What readers may miss unless they read the closing timeline and author’s note is that, despite being denied a doctoral degree, she also opened and ran an instructional “Women’s Laboratory” at MIT in a garage before finally being admitted to the faculty. Her vital legacy continues, the author writes, in the ongoing “fight for clean water and a healthy environment.” In Wu’s softly textured color pencil illustrations, Ellen stands out as an alert, bright-eyed figure.
A warm portrait of a pioneering mind and spirit. (bibliography, source notes) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781536230055
Page Count: 40
Publisher: MIT Kids Press/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
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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