For middle-grade readers concerned about climate change, a rich resource.
A primer on climate change focusing on practical suggestions for personal action.
These 50 short chapters are filled with information as well as advice for those who would like to do something about global warming and climate change. Science writer Thomas directly addresses her readers with short, lively explanations and examples liberally illustrated with Paterson’s grayscale cartoons. An informative “Planet-o-Meter” accompanies each, with helpful symbolic representations of what might be affected, the cost, the difficulty, and the likely impact. Thomas opens with background information on Earth’s temperature, the greenhouse effect, and climate change, as well as how scientists measure these things. She offers arguments to counter climate change deniers. And then she goes on to talk about myriad ways one may reduce one’s carbon footprint and one’s waste. Among her topics are food, equipment and repairs, sharing stuff, rewilding, growing trees, reducing the use of hot water, not flying, not using aerosol sprays, and staying home as well as suggestions for school and public campaigns. One startling chapter heading is “STOP RECYCLING,” but the sentence continues, “unless it’s a last resort! Always focus on reducing and reusing first.” Another surprise may be the suggestion to “pee on the compost pile!” (Urine needs to be sanitized by storing for a month first.) The organization is lively and unexpected—there’s a chapter of definitions in the middle.
For middle-grade readers concerned about climate change, a rich resource. (index) (Nonfiction. 9-14)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30870-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Contentwise, an arbitrary assortment…but sure to draw fans of comics, of science, or of both.
Flash, Batman, and other characters from the DC Comics universe tackle supervillains and STEM-related topics and sometimes, both.
Credited to 20 writers and illustrators in various combinations, the 10 episodes invite readers to tag along as Mera and Aquaman visit oceanic zones from epipelagic to hadalpelagic; Supergirl helps a young scholar pick a science-project topic by taking her on a tour of the solar system; and Swamp Thing lends Poison Ivy a hand to describe how DNA works (later joining Swamp Kid to scuttle a climate-altering scheme by Arcane). In other episodes, various costumed creations explain the ins and outs of diverse large- and small-scale phenomena, including electricity, atomic structure, forensic techniques, 3-D printing, and the lactate threshold. Presumably on the supposition that the characters will be more familiar to readers than the science, the minilectures tend to start from simple basics, but the figures are mostly both redrawn to look more childlike than in the comics and identified only in passing. Drawing styles and page designs differ from chapter to chapter but not enough to interrupt overall visual unity and flow—and the cast is sufficiently diverse to include roles for superheroes (and villains) of color like Cyborg, Kid Flash, and the Latina Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz. Appended lists of websites and science-based YouTube channels, plus instructions for homespun activities related to each episode, point inspired STEM-winders toward further discoveries.
Contentwise, an arbitrary assortment…but sure to draw fans of comics, of science, or of both. (Graphic nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77950-382-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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