Considering how many much more versatile coding-for-kids books are out there, it’s best to just let this one go.
A Frozen-branded introduction to coding in Blockly.
This workbook directs readers to a Code.org project page featuring sprites of princesses Anna and Elsa as well as digital ice on which the Frozen heroines can skate, making designs using the block-based coding language Blockly (developed by Google and with visual interface similarities to MIT’s Scratch language). In order to draw various designs, readers are introduced to directional commands, angles, and repeat loops. These build, coaxing readers to group together the written codes in functions and nested functions as well as loops to create more complex designs. Various code quizzes and puzzles, such as multiple-choice activities in which readers match code to output, are scattered throughout (with answers included in backmatter, alongside a glossary). Aside from those quizzes, the book is mostly prescriptive, laying out codes exactly as they should be entered. While the book does introduce coding concepts used in all sorts of programming, it limits itself strictly to covering how to code drawings. While the branding might be enough to lure in Frozen-obsessed kids, all but the newest to coding are likely to be disappointed by how little the book teaches them to do. Anna, Elsa, and Olaf the snowman are the depicted guides, making this an all-white offering.
Considering how many much more versatile coding-for-kids books are out there, it’s best to just let this one go. (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5415-3266-3
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote...
Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.
One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In “Coyote Sings to the Moon,” the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn’t enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake—until she is finally driven forth by Coyote’s awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In “Coyote’s New Suit” he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they’re bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans’ clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler’s monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl.
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Starting with a lonely slice of pizza pictured on the cover and the first page, Thornhill launches into a wide-ranging study of the history and culture of food—where it comes from, how to eat it and what our food industries are doing to the planet. It’s a lot to hang on that slice of pizza, but there are plenty of interesting tidbits here, from Clarence Birdseye’s experiments with frozen food to how mad cow disease causes the brain to turn spongy to industrial food production and global warming. Unfortunately, the volume is designed like a bad high-school yearbook. Most pages are laid out in text boxes, each containing a paragraph on a discrete topic, but with little in the way of an organizing theme to tie together the content of the page or spread. Too many colors, too much jumbled-together information and total reliance on snippets of information make this a book for young readers more interested in browsing than reading. Kids at the upper edge of the book's range would be better served by Richie Chevat's adaptation of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2009). (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-897349-96-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Maple Tree Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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