Advice for what the author has called “the Greta generation” but no answers.
Human actions have damaged animal habitats; what can we do to avoid another mass extinction?
Experts on talking about climate change, especially with young people, emphasize making personal connections, staying hopeful, and focusing on solutions. This British import does just the reverse. It’s a litany of examples of the ways the natural world is changing. Prolific nature writer de la Bédoyère has had plenty of experience presenting animal facts to young readers, but in this case, the sad, scary examples far outnumber the hopeful ones. Her opening chapter introduces the concepts of animal habitats, overpopulation, climate change, pollution, and mass-extinction events. “We haven’t cared enough about the harm we’ve been doing” to animal homes, she writes. Subsequent chapters are organized by habitats: forests, grasslands, oceans, and mountains and poles (dealt with together). Within each chapter each spread serves as a subsection: open oceans, coasts, coral reefs, the ocean floor, and plastic pollution in the marine section, for example. The text, barely more than infobits, is set in boxes decorated with photographs which themselves are set on larger photographs. There are also charts and maps, more boxes with useful suggestions for “What You Can Do,” and quizzes with choices that are “Totally True or Foolishly False?” (Answers in the back of the book.)
Advice for what the author has called “the Greta generation” but no answers. (glossary, suggested websites) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-78312-652-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Welbeck Children's
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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
This glossy, colorful title in the “I Want To Be” series has visual appeal but poor organization and a fuzzy focus, which limits its usefulness. Each double-paged layout introduces a new topic with six to eight full-color photographs and a single column of text. Topics include types of environmentalists, eco-issues, waste renewal, education, High School of Environmental Studies, environmental vocabulary, history of environmentalism, famous environmentalists, and the return of the eagle. Often the photographs have little to do with the text or are marginal to the topic. For example, a typical layout called “Some Alternative Solutions” has five snapshots superimposed on a double-page photograph of a California wind farm. The text discusses ways to develop alternative forms of energy and “encourage environmentally friendly lifestyles.” Photos include “a healer who treats a patient with alternative therapy using sound and massage,” and “the Castle,” a house built of “used tires and aluminum cans.” Elsewhere, “Did You Know . . . ” shows a dramatic photo of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but the text provides odd facts such as “ . . . that in Saudi Arabia there are solar-powered pay phones in the desert?” Some sections seem stuck in, a two-page piece on the effects of “El Niño” or 50 postage-stamp–sized photos of endangered species. The author concludes with places to write for more information and a list of photo credits. Pretty, but little here to warrant purchase. (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-201862-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
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