Solid, respectful scholarship tailored for mature, serious-minded young readers.
Before she became a trailblazing scientist, Mary Anning was a poor, young woman with no formal education.
Growing up, Anning loved exploring the beaches and cliffs of her native Dorset, a county in southwest England. Raised in the town of Lyme Regis, she was trained by her father to hunt for fossils. She became adept at removing the delicate bones of prehistoric creatures from rocks and preparing them for sale in her impoverished family’s fossil shop. At age 13, Anning made an extraordinary discovery—the first complete ichthyosaurus skeleton ever found; her older brother had earlier discovered its skull. Intelligent and fiercely determined, Anning educated herself by copying articles and drawings from scientific journals, and she learned anatomy through dissection. She achieved many remarkable breakthroughs that gradually advanced paleontological and geological knowledge: She found the first complete plesiosaur fossil; became the first British person to find a pterodactyl; and was the first person in the world to discover a squaloraja (an ancestor of the shark and ray) fossil. Anning rarely received recognition in her lifetime. Only near her death at age 47—due to breast cancer—did she finally gain fame and respect for her scientific contributions. This admiring tribute is well written and thoroughly researched. Its handsome design includes captioned, high-quality color and black-and-white paleoart, archival photos, and engravings as well as some of Anning’s sketches and excerpts from her correspondence with friends and fellow scientists. Each chapter opens with a quote, including three attributed to Anning. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Solid, respectful scholarship tailored for mature, serious-minded young readers. (author's note, timeline, glossary, notes, source quotes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 10-13)Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-39605-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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