LET’S TRY IT OUT WITH TOWERS AND BRIDGES

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LET’S TRY IT OUT WITH TOWERS AND BRIDGES

Name: LET’S TRY IT OUT WITH TOWERS AND BRIDGES
Author: Seymour Simon
ISBN: 0-689-82923-X

by Seymour Simon & illustrated by Doug Cushman & by Nicole Fauteux ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

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For the future engineer, architect, or construction work, this latest in the Let’s Try It Out series may fuel her interest, or spark a new one. Various building, tower, and bridge designs familiar to children are introduced as readers explore the way they are constructed to withstand wind, snow, and rain. Activities emphasize the use of the scientific method and include making a wooden-block pyramid, a tower with clay foundation, and experimenting with arched or folded paper bridges. Beginning and end notes for parents, teachers, and caregivers provide creative suggestions in using the activities with young children. Cushman’s artwork is delightful, seamlessly illustrating both the building examples used in the text, and the children who are modeling the activities. The children are reminiscent of the Fisher-Price Little People, with their expressive, pudgy faces and their brightly colored clothing. They are also representative of several different cultures. A wonderful resource for encouraging imaginative and educational play in children. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-689-82923-X

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2003

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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BERRY MAGIC

by Teri Sloat & Betty Huffman & illustrated by Teri Sloat ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2004

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Sloat collaborates with Huffman, a Yu’pik storyteller, to infuse a traditional “origins” tale with the joy of creating. Hearing the old women of her village grumble that they have only tasteless crowberries for the fall feast’s akutaq—described as “Eskimo ice cream,” though the recipe at the end includes mixing in shredded fish and lard—young Anana carefully fashions three dolls, then sings and dances them to life. Away they bound, to cover the hills with cranberries, blueberries, and salmonberries. Sloat dresses her smiling figures in mixes of furs and brightly patterned garb, and sends them tumbling exuberantly through grassy tundra scenes as wildlife large and small gathers to look on. Despite obtrusively inserted pronunciations for Yu’pik words in the text, young readers will be captivated by the action, and by Anana’s infectious delight. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)

Pub Date: June 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-88240-575-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ZIP! ZOOM! ON A BROOM
by Teri Sloat ; illustrated by Rosalinde Bonnet

- BOOK REVIEW
PABLO IN THE SNOW
by Teri Sloat ; illustrated by Rosalinde Bonnet

- BOOK REVIEW
THERE WAS AN OLD MAN WHO PAINTED THE SKY
by Teri Sloat and illustrated by Stefano Vitale

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THE STREET BENEATH MY FEET

by Charlotte Guillain ; illustrated by Yuval Zommer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2017

An unusual offering for the young geology nerd.

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This British import is an imaginatively constructed sequence of images that show a white boy examining a city pavement, clearly in London, and the sights he would see if he were able to travel down to the Earth’s core and then back again to the surface.

The geologic layers are depicted in 10 vertical spreads that require a 90-degree turn to be read and include endpapers, which open out, concertina fashion, to show the interior of the Earth to its core. Beneath the urban setting are drains, pipes, and artifacts of urban infrastructure. Below that, archaeological relics are revealed. An Underground train speeds by, and below it, a stalactite-encrusted cave yawns. Deep below the Earth’s crust, magma, the Earth’s mantle, and the inner core are shown. Turn the page to start going up again, back through the mantle to the crust, where precious minerals are revealed, then fossils, tree roots, and animal burrows, ending with the same boy in the English countryside. The painted, stenciled, and collaged illustrations are full-bleed, and the tones graduate pleasantly from light colors at the surface of the Earth to rich pinks, yellows, and oranges as readers near the Earth’s core. The text is informative, if lacking in poetry, including such nuggets as “earthworms are expert recyclers, eating dead plants in the soil.”

An unusual offering for the young geology nerd. (Informational picture book. 5-8)