An engrossing portrayal of “a bold, complicated, dangerous, and expensive adventure,” at once broad in scope and rich in...
A frank account of our early space program’s ups and downs, with 21 low-tech, hands-on activities.
Readers old enough to be drawn in to Pohlen’s mission-by-mission accounts of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs will likely find the interspersed projects—which range from making a balloon-powered rocket that runs along a string to chucking pebbles into a bowl of light and dark powders to create “craters”—laughably rudimentary. Fortunately, the author’s picture of the brilliant if too-often-slapdash effort that ultimately sent 24 men to the moon and brought them all back is compelling enough to survive distractions. Along with taking due note of the thousands of people, not all of them white or male, who labored to solve the program’s massive technological and logistical challenges, he humanizes the astronauts with frequent references to their families. Plenty of period photos, accounts of memorable incidents en route (“On the mission’s first day, Frank Borman vomited in the equipment bay. Lovell watched a chunky blob the size of a tennis ball float up”), exuberant quotes from mission transcripts (Pete Conrad: “Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me!”), and glimpses of their post-Apollo pursuits further this effect as well.
An engrossing portrayal of “a bold, complicated, dangerous, and expensive adventure,” at once broad in scope and rich in specific details. (index, glossary, endnotes, multimedia resources) (Nonfiction. 11-13)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-912777-17-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
If Freedman wrote the history textbooks, we would have many more historians. Beginning with an engrossing description of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, he brings the reader the lives of the American colonists and the events leading up to the break with England. The narrative approach to history reads like a good story, yet Freedman tucks in the data that give depth to it. The inclusion of all the people who lived during those times and the roles they played, whether small or large are acknowledged with dignity. The story moves backwards from the Boston Tea Party to the beginning of the European settlement of what they called the New World, and then proceeds chronologically to the signing of the Declaration. “Your Rights and Mine” traces the influence of the document from its inception to the present ending with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The full text of the Declaration and a reproduction of the original are included. A chronology of events and an index are helpful to the young researcher. Another interesting feature is “Visiting the Declaration of Independence.” It contains a short review of what happened to the document in the years after it was written, a useful Web site, and a description of how it is displayed and protected today at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. Illustrations from the period add interest and detail. An excellent addition to the American history collection and an engrossing read. (Nonfiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1448-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
Logically pointing out that the American cowboy archetype didn’t spring up from nowhere, Sandler, author of Cowboys (1994) and other volumes in the superficial, if luxuriously illustrated, “Library of Congress Book” series, looks back over 400 years of cattle tending in North America. His coverage ranges from the livestock carried on Columbus’s second voyage to today’s herding-by-helicopter operations. Here, too, the generous array of dramatic early prints, paintings, and photos are more likely to capture readers’ imaginations than the generality-ridden text. But among his vague comments about the characters, values, and culture passed by Mexican vaqueros to later arrivals from the Eastern US, Sadler intersperses nods to the gauchos, llaneros, and other South American “cowmen,” plus the paniolos of Hawaii, and the renowned African-American cowboys. He also decries the role film and popular literature have played in suppressing the vaqueros’ place in the history of the American West. He tackles an uncommon topic, and will broaden the historical perspective of many young cowboy fans, but his glance at modern vaqueros seems to stop at this country’s borders. Young readers will get a far more detailed, vivid picture of vaquero life and work from the cowboy classics in his annotated bibliography. (Notes, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6019-7
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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