Familiar content in a new package designed for preteen readers.
In a world that’s being “swamped by plastic,” kids can help make change.
This eye-catching title introduces the problem of plastic and its durability and offers its young readers suggestions and examples for helping to battle this aspect of the “global pollution crisis.” The opening chapters explain the issue, the history of plastic, its long-lasting nature, and its threat to sea life. Three subsequent chapters provide examples from around the globe and offer readers ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastics in their own locales. The author concludes with some potential solutions. The lively, busy design features text set on double-page spreads illustrated with large photos as well as photo collages. (Eight spreads must be turned sideways to view.) Further facts are set off in small boxes and other shapes. There are familiar comparisons, such as weight measured in units of school buses; interviews with “Planet Protectors,” often teen activists, and National Geographic explorers; maps; and photographs of people from all over the world (mostly light-skinned). “Take action” boxes feature concrete suggestions: Don’t flush your contact lenses; do carry a reusable straw. “Try this” projects range from “I Spy” photo challenges to directions for craft projects. National Geographic adds this print title to its extensive online collection of “Kids vs. Plastic” links: videos, project suggestions, and teacher resources, many of which use the same material. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.9-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 86.5% of actual size.)
Familiar content in a new package designed for preteen readers. (index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4263-3910-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
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
This glossy, colorful title in the “I Want To Be” series has visual appeal but poor organization and a fuzzy focus, which limits its usefulness. Each double-paged layout introduces a new topic with six to eight full-color photographs and a single column of text. Topics include types of environmentalists, eco-issues, waste renewal, education, High School of Environmental Studies, environmental vocabulary, history of environmentalism, famous environmentalists, and the return of the eagle. Often the photographs have little to do with the text or are marginal to the topic. For example, a typical layout called “Some Alternative Solutions” has five snapshots superimposed on a double-page photograph of a California wind farm. The text discusses ways to develop alternative forms of energy and “encourage environmentally friendly lifestyles.” Photos include “a healer who treats a patient with alternative therapy using sound and massage,” and “the Castle,” a house built of “used tires and aluminum cans.” Elsewhere, “Did You Know . . . ” shows a dramatic photo of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but the text provides odd facts such as “ . . . that in Saudi Arabia there are solar-powered pay phones in the desert?” Some sections seem stuck in, a two-page piece on the effects of “El Niño” or 50 postage-stamp–sized photos of endangered species. The author concludes with places to write for more information and a list of photo credits. Pretty, but little here to warrant purchase. (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-201862-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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