Everything you've always wanted to know about how a castle was defended—in a fusion of the organic and the technical that David Macaulay hasn't quite achieved before. "On a high limestone outcrop" along the Welsh coast, master engineer James and his staff build a castle and a town for Lord Kevin—to help secure northwest Wales, in 1283, for Edward I. Thus, from one or another bird's-eye view, one sees the site as a ditch outlines the town, a moat cuts off the castle rock, bounding walls and towers rise, houses line the streets and stretch, with their garden plots, to the town wall—where at last, in 1295, Welsh soldiers mount an attack. Meanwhile, one has also watched, close-up, the intricate construction of battlements, towers, gatehouses (and garderobes) designed to make the imaginary "Aberwyvern" an impregnable fortress. So there is no little drama in seeing the attack repulsed, the defenses hold; but Macaulay does it artfully, with pictures (a catapult assembled, and then abandoned), and moves on in good historic order to the town spreading beyond the walls, Welsh and English passing freely through the gates. At the very last "Master James's mighty castle" is a moonlit ruin—ending in romance what began as a calculated plan. The factually-minded and fantasizers will find equal reward here.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1977
ISBN: 0395329205
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1977
A lovely encouragement to young writers to persist.
This follow-up to How To Read a Story (2005) shows a child going through the steps of creating a story, from choosing an idea through sharing with friends.
A young black child lies in a grassy field writing in a journal, working on “Step 1 / Search for an Idea— / a shiny one.” During a walk to the library, various ideas float in colorful thought bubbles, with exclamation points: “playing soccer! / dogs!” Inside the library, less-distinct ideas, expressed as shapes and pictures, with question marks, float about as the writer collects ideas to choose from. The young writer must then choose a setting, a main character, and a problem for that protagonist. Plotting, writing with detail, and revising are described in child-friendly terms and shown visually, in the form of lists and notes on faux pieces of paper. Finally, the writer sits in the same field, in a new season, sharing the story with friends. The illustrations feature the child’s writing and drawing as well as images of imagined events from the book in progress bursting off the page. The child’s main character is an adventurous mermaid who looks just like the child, complete with afro-puff pigtails, representing an affirming message about writing oneself into the world. The child’s family, depicted as black, moves in the background of the setting, which is also populated by a multiracial cast.
A lovely encouragement to young writers to persist. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5666-8
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.
The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.
Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-55-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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