Skill and persistence lead to STEM success against historical odds in this brief and attractive biography.
Jan Matzeliger’s name might not be on everyone’s lips, but it should be on everyone’s feet.
The son of a mechanic-shop owner, Jan was raised in Dutch-speaking Suriname. At 19, he began working on a merchant ship, sailing around the world until he landed in Philadelphia. (The year is unspecified, but readers are told that “the Civil War had ended nearly a decade earlier.”) As “a Black immigrant who couldn’t speak English,” Jan struggled but found work in a shoe factory. Seeing the labor-intensive hand process used to sew a shoe’s upper piece to its sole, he proposed mechanizing the task. The other workers scoffed. Even after moving to a shoe-manufacturing center in Lynn, Massachusetts, Jan still met with skepticism, but he persisted, arduously building his machine (which dramatically increased productivity) and receiving a patent. Keller details Jan’s painstaking process, reinforcing the message of perseverance. Costanza’s flat, clear illustrations, in muted sepia and blue, abound in period details. They are slightly stylized and somewhat fanciful but reflect photographic evidence of Matzeliger’s appearance and provide touches of humor. Playful use of typography and depictions of the machine parts Jan designed add appeal. Only the final pages of the backmatter reveal that Matzeliger died of tuberculosis at 37, just six years after his patent was approved.
Skill and persistence lead to STEM success against historical odds in this brief and attractive biography. (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781534113008
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
More thoughtful, sometimes exhilarating encounters with nature.
In a new entry in the Over and Under series, a paddleboarder glimpses humpback whales leaping, floats over a populous kelp forest, and explores life on a beach and in a tide pool.
In this tale inspired by Messner’s experiences in Monterey Bay in California, a young tan-skinned narrator, along with their light-skinned mom and tan-skinned dad, observes in quiet, lyrical language sights and sounds above and below the sea’s serene surface. Switching perspectives and angles of view and often leaving the family’s red paddleboards just tiny dots bobbing on distant swells, Neal’s broad seascapes depict in precise detail bat stars and anchovies, kelp bass, and sea otters going about their business amid rocky formations and the swaying fronds of kelp…and, further out, graceful moon jellies and—thrillingly—massive whales in open waters beneath gliding pelicans and other shorebirds. After returning to the beach at day’s end to search for shells and to spot anemones and decorator crabs, the child ends with nighttime dreams of stars in the sky meeting stars in the sea. Appended nature notes on kelp and 21 other types of sealife fill in details about patterns and relationships in this rich ecosystem. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
More thoughtful, sometimes exhilarating encounters with nature. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-79720-347-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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