Like other tributes in the series, adequate fare for cluing newer readers in on some worthy role models.
A very first introduction to the great scientist.
Apparently more concerned with explaining why Marie Curie is worth knowing than compiling biographical details, Sánchez Vegara dispenses with most names and all dates to focus on achievements that reflect her subject’s intellect and character. Opening with Marie’s childhood vow to “be a scientist, not a princess” and her later move from her unnamed home country to become “the best math and science student in Paris,” the author highlights her marriage and Pierre’s “terrible accident,” her discoveries of radium and polonium (no explanation provided), her two Nobel Prizes, and how she helped injured soldiers in an unspecified way during a never-named war and afterward established an institute in Paris to further girls’ educations. Isa idealizes Curie’s features in the illustrations, portraying her as a sweet, smiling child with pale-white skin even in a final view (based on a famous photo) showing her sitting on a pile of books in a row of other great scientists—all of whom are, unsurprisingly, male and white. In the co-published Agatha Christie, illustrator Elisa Munsó at least lets her subject grow up but likewise (with rather more justice) leaves her among stacks of books after Sánchez Vegara’s generalized account of the author’s travels, detectives, and gift for plot twists. Both profiles close with photos, timelines, and afterwords that fill in some of the blanks.
Like other tributes in the series, adequate fare for cluing newer readers in on some worthy role models. (Picture book/biography. 5-7)Pub Date: March 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-84780-962-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Earnest and silly by turns, it doesn’t quite capture the attention or the imagination, although surely its heart is in the...
Rhymed couplets convey the story of a girl who likes to build things but is shy about it. Neither the poetry nor Rosie’s projects always work well.
Rosie picks up trash and oddments where she finds them, stashing them in her attic room to work on at night. Once, she made a hat for her favorite zookeeper uncle to keep pythons away, and he laughed so hard that she never made anything publicly again. But when her great-great-aunt Rose comes to visit and reminds Rosie of her own past building airplanes, she expresses her regret that she still has not had the chance to fly. Great-great-aunt Rose is visibly modeled on Rosie the Riveter, the iconic, red-bandanna–wearing poster woman from World War II. Rosie decides to build a flying machine and does so (it’s a heli-o-cheese-copter), but it fails. She’s just about to swear off making stuff forever when Aunt Rose congratulates her on her failure; now she can go on to try again. Rosie wears her hair swooped over one eye (just like great-great-aunt Rose), and other figures have exaggerated hairdos, tiny feet and elongated or greatly rounded bodies. The detritus of Rosie’s collections is fascinating, from broken dolls and stuffed animals to nails, tools, pencils, old lamps and possibly an erector set. And cheddar-cheese spray.
Earnest and silly by turns, it doesn’t quite capture the attention or the imagination, although surely its heart is in the right place. (historical note) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0845-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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