A fascinating step-by-step descent into the still largely unexplored "living minestrone" in which our planet is enfolded,...
Well-designed digital bells and whistles boost Johnson's already first-rate print dive past marine biology's frontiers (2010) to the next level.
Paired to quick glimpses of scientists engaged in the worldwide, decade-long Census of Marine Life, the select array of newly-identified copepods, jellyfish, sea cucumbers, "squidworms" and other exotic denizens of both shallows and deeps look even more eldritch and alien on the screen. The author's second-person address places readers directly into the adventure: "Scrunched inside a submersible that has just passed 1,476 feet (450 meters), you’re descending through a dark world few people have seen." Two videos (one a lively intro by the author, the other more than six minutes long, which accounts for the app's unusual size) and slide shows join a great array of large, sharply detailed photos—many of which are eye widening close-ups. Photo captions have been moved behind tappable icons to give the pages a spacious look, and the chapters are "stacked" to make both horizontal and vertical navigation positively pleasurable. Live links to web sites and online articles punctuate the closing resource lists.
A fascinating step-by-step descent into the still largely unexplored "living minestrone" in which our planet is enfolded, with special features that enhance rather than distract. (iPad informational app. 10-13)Pub Date: May 31, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
A rich and deeply felt slice of life.
Crafting fantasy worlds offers a budding middle school author relief and distraction from the real one in this graphic memoir debut.
Everyone in Tori’s life shows realistic mixes of vulnerability and self-knowledge while, equally realistically, seeming to be making it up as they go. At least, as she shuttles between angrily divorced parents—dad becoming steadily harder to reach, overstressed mom spectacularly incapable of reading her offspring—or drifts through one wearingly dull class after another, she has both vivacious bestie Taylor Lee and, promisingly, new classmate Nick as well as the (all-girl) heroic fantasy, complete with portals, crystal amulets, and evil enchantments, taking shape in her mind and on paper. The flow of school projects, sleepovers, heart-to-heart conversations with Taylor, and like incidents (including a scene involving Tori’s older brother, who is having a rough adolescence, that could be seen as domestic violence) turns to a tide of change as eighth grade winds down and brings unwelcome revelations about friends. At least the story remains as solace and, at the close, a sense that there are still chapters to come in both worlds. Working in a simple, expressive cartoon style reminiscent of Raina Telgemeier’s, Sharp captures facial and body language with easy naturalism. Most people in the spacious, tidily arranged panels are White; Taylor appears East Asian, and there is diversity in background characters.
A rich and deeply felt slice of life. (afterword, design notes) (Graphic memoir. 10-13)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-53889-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
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