A quick once-over of this hot-button topic, though strongly argued if superficial and oddly illustrated. Pointedly dismissing Intelligent Design and not even bothering to “teach the controversy,” Loxton explains in nontechnical language the current understanding of how species evolve through Natural Selection—which he rightly defines as “survival of the adequate.” After showing how applecart-upsetting evidence of extinct animals and the geologic scale of time led to “Darwin’s Big Idea,” he describes the processes of selection in answers to a series of skeptically posed questions like, “How could evolution produce something as complicated as my eyes?” However, not only does he fail to provide any source notes or links to further resources, he leaves readers largely in the dark about evolution’s genetic mechanism. Furthermore, the illustrations are a patchwork jumble of color photos, sketchy diagrams, awkwardly drawn cartoon figures and uncommonly photorealistic portraits of prehistoric creatures. Better-founded introductions like Robert Winston’s Evolution Revolution: From Darwin to DNA (2009) or Kristan Lawson’s Darwin and Evolution for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities (2003) will likely edge out this one in the struggle to survive. (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55453-430-2
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2010
In this abridged and illustrated version of his Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), Bryson invites a younger crowd of seekers on a tour of time, space and science—from the Big Bang and the birth of the solar system to the growth and study of life on Earth. The single-topic spreads are adorned with cartoon portraits of scientists, explorers and (frequently) the author himself, which go with small nature photos and the occasional chart or cutaway view. Though occasionally subject to sweeping and dubious statements—“There’s no chance we could ever make a journey through the solar system”—Bryson makes a genial guide (“for you to be here now, trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to come together in a complicated and obliging manner to create you”), and readers with even a flicker of curiosity in their souls about Big Ideas will come away sharing his wonder at living in such a “fickle and eventful universe.” (index) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-73810-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
Remarking that ``nothing about the weather is very simple,'' Simon goes on to describe how the sun, atmosphere, earth's rotation, ground cover, altitude, pollution, and other factors influence it; briefly, he also tells how weather balloons gather information. Even for this outstanding author, it's a tough, complex topic, and he's not entirely successful in simplifying it; moreover, the import of the striking uncaptioned color photos here isn't always clear. One passage—``Cumulus clouds sometimes build up into towering masses called cumulus congestus, or swelling cumulus, which may turn into cumulonimbus clouds''—is superimposed on a blue-gray, cloud-covered landscape. But which kind of clouds are these? Another photo, in blue-black and white, shows what might be precipitation in the upper atmosphere, or rain falling on a darkened landscape, or...? Generally competent and certainly attractive, but not Simon's best. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-10546-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
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