A brightly inviting and effective manual for teaching data visualization to younger readers.
An illustrated guide to teaching visual information to children.
The key fictional conceit of Khan’s nonfiction debut is a 10-year-old girl named Pariza, whose parents are teaching the basics of data visualization to her and her younger brother “one graph at a time.” Each of the book’s chapters contains a story in which little Pariza is exposed to some new data concept or mathematical process, followed by a “time out” in which more details are provided, concluding with a “your turn to play” segment in which young readers are encouraged to try out the skills they’ve just learned. In this fictionalized setting, the author contends with a variety of simple data-representation challenges, from the basics of making a graph to ways of breaking down such statistical data as the average rainfall in each of the United States or the number of vowels and consonants in the various state names. Gradually, the subjects grow more elaborate and more complicated, always couched in the activities of Pariza’s family. In one section, Pariza and her family members keep track of each person’s score during rounds of Scrabble; Pariza then converts those scores into a graph (“she started adding dots for her score and connected them to form a line graph”). Khan’s narrative choice to render all of this as a story with identifiable characters (including resourceful Pariza, her calm, understanding parents, and her headstrong younger brother) is a wise one; the approach will allow younger readers to learn the basics of data visualization without feeling intimidated or bored. The book’s uncredited illustrations, showing not only characters and their settings but also multicolored charts and graphs, further help to demystify what might otherwise be daunting concepts. By the end of the book, Pariza is confident and ready to take on the world, and Khan’s young readers may very well feel the same way.
A brightly inviting and effective manual for teaching data visualization to younger readers.Pub Date: June 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781087966205
Page Count: 126
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.
Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.
Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers. (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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