As a gimmick the stickmen add a bit of comic side business but not enough to lift these largely superficial outings out of...
A tour of urban structures and infrastructure, from top to bottom.
Chambers begins with glances at rooftop satellite dishes, recreational facilities, and, for newer skyscrapers, solar panels and wind turbines. Before closing with piles and other types of foundations, she descends past elevators and escalators, with pauses for office-floor design, lighting, the use of greenery for “living walls” and “grasscrete,” transportation at street level and below, sewers, and power lines. Though she zips through all of these large topics with the speed of an express elevator, her occasional examples reflect an international outlook—as do closing pages of selected facts and future developments. She takes a similar top-to-bottom approach in three companion volumes: Stickmen’s Guide to Earth’s Atmosphere in Layers, …Mountains and Valleys in Layers, and …Oceans in Layers. In each de Quay mixes appropriate cartoon images of skyscrapers or satellites, cutaway views of volcanoes, or schematic arrays of sea life with anthropomorphic, faceless stick figures either hard at work or, nearly as often, energetically cutting up.
As a gimmick the stickmen add a bit of comic side business but not enough to lift these largely superficial outings out of the general run of assignment fodder. (index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5124-0620-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hungry Tomato/Lerner
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A classic story of outsiders making friends—with a little something more.
After moving to a new city, a girl attends a wilderness camp to help her make new friends.
When astronomy-obsessed 9-year-old Vega’s dad Wes gets a new job, the family moves from Portland to Seattle. Vega is not happy about this change and doesn’t want to leave her best friend behind, worrying they will grow apart. Vega’s dad Javi thinks making new friends will help her adjust, so he signs her up for Camp Very Best Friend, which is designed to help introverted local children build new friendships. Vega is not exactly eager to go but makes a deal with Wes, agreeing to try out camp as long as he tries to make a new friend too. It quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary outdoor adventure, and Vega and her fellow campers try to figure out what is really going on. The story smoothly incorporates STEM facts with insets on the page to define and highlight terms or tools. An unexpected twist toward the end of this fast-paced adventure that reveals the truth behind the camp will surprise readers. The clean, bright artwork is enhanced by panels of varying shapes and clear, easy-to-follow speech bubbles. Race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are not explicitly addressed; characters’ names and physical appearances indicate a broadly diverse cast starting with brown-skinned Vega and her two dads.
A classic story of outsiders making friends—with a little something more. (Graphic fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: June 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5566-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
A picture book combines the exuberance of children and the drama found in nature for a sly lesson on power-sharing. Henderson (Newborn, 1999, etc.) lands on the wide reaches of a windy beach where young Jim expansively flings wide his arms and claims “All this is mine!” So it seems until the wind blows in a gale so violent that it smashes objects and tears “through the dreams of people sleeping.” An eerie series of black-and-white paintings shows the white-capped waves breaking ever higher and crashing inland; these are so frightening that Jim cries out to his mother, “The sea! It’s coming!” Happily enough, Jim and his mother are able to run up the hill to a grandmother’s house where they weather the storm safely. The next time Jim speaks to the wind, on a much quieter beach, he whispers, “All this is yours.” Large type, appealing pastel illustrations, and a dose of proper perspective on humankind’s power over nature make this book a fine choice for story hours as well as nature collections. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7636-0904-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
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