An attractive condensed account that will put the wind under readers’ wings.
The first Black pilot to solo circumnavigate the world tells his story.
Irving, born in Jamaica, moves to Miami at age 6, and the “badgering” about his clothes and speech that he endures as an outsider just makes him resolve to aim high. That goal initially means football—until a stranger walks into his parents’ bookstore and asks if he’s ever thought about becoming a pilot. Captain Gary Robinson, who is also Black, takes him under his wing and into a cockpit, giving him a lesson with a flight instructor when Irving turns 16. Irving earns money for more lessons, works hard, and obtains his pilot’s license. Then Captain Robinson poses a challenge to the 21-year-old Irving: Pay it forward and help someone else. Irving starts an after-school STEM program, then envisions a landmark goal: a solo flight around the world. His initial efforts to find support are discouraging; it takes two years to get a plane, another year to plan. Despite doubts, Irving takes off in 2007 before, 26 stops and 97 days later, eventually returning to Miami. One full-page illustration is devoted to the riskiest flight segment; a map traces the whole route. The art is colorful and uncluttered but detailed, with labels for cockpit instruments and levers, as well as many parts of a turbo-prop. Though details of the flights are few, the writing channels the aviator’s conversational voice, and the narrative arc is uplifting.
An attractive condensed account that will put the wind under readers’ wings. (more information on Irving, timeline, quotes from Irving, bibliography) (Picture-book memoir. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593532133
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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