Hefty helpings of useful bits and motivational advice for enjoying the great outdoors.
Tips and guidelines for Scouts and would-be Scouts from TV presenter Grylls, the Chief Ambassador of World Scouting.
British adventurer Grylls packs this compact handbook with pep talks and practicalities in roughly equal measure. So, thickly interspersed with general instructions for erecting a tent, building a fire (with a blank page to rip out for kindling), foraging in the wild (“Grasshoppers. Only eat the body, not the legs, wings and antennae”), and dozens of other outdoorsy camping and survival topics, readers will find prompts to maintain that can-do attitude and rousing, inspirational slogans from (naturally) “Be prepared” to “Most of all, don’t count the days. Make the days count.” The author emphasizes that “Scouts is open to all,” skipping mention in the brief outline of Scouting history of the movement’s long struggles with inclusivity in terms of race, sexual orientation, and gender. Still, for intrepid and armchair explorers alike, he has plenty to offer, from navigation tricks and no fewer than 13 ways to use the standard-issue kerchief in emergencies to the values of team play, sustainable living, worthy role models, and leaving one’s comfort zone. “After all,” he writes, “adventure is a state of mind.” The monochrome illustrations include plentiful diagrams as well as human figures who are diverse in both skin tone and gender.
Hefty helpings of useful bits and motivational advice for enjoying the great outdoors. (Nonfiction. 10-15)Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781399809870
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Hodder Faith
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge.
With an amped-up sense of wonder, the Science Guy surveys the natural universe.
Starting from first principles like the scientific method, Nye and his co-author marvel at the “Amazing Machine” that is the human body then go on to talk up animals, plants, evolution, physics and chemistry, the quantum realm, geophysics, and climate change. They next venture out into the solar system and beyond. Along with tallying select aspects and discoveries in each chapter, the authors gather up “Massively Important” central concepts, send shoutouts to underrecognized women scientists like oceanographer Marie Tharp, and slip in directions for homespun experiments and demonstrations. They also challenge readers to ponder still-unsolved scientific posers and intersperse rousing quotes from working scientists about how exciting and wide open their respective fields are. If a few of those fields, like the fungal kingdom, get short shrift (one spare paragraph notwithstanding), readers are urged often enough to go look things up for themselves to kindle a compensatory habit. Aside from posed photos of Nye and a few more of children (mostly presenting as White) doing science-y things, the full-color graphic and photographic images not only reflect the overall “get this!” tone but consistently enrich the flow of facts and reflections. “Our universe is a strange and surprising place,” Nye writes. “Stay curious.” Words to live by.
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge. (contributors, art credits, selected bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4676-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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