Readers will cheer the return of these merry, lab-coated schlemiels.
The troupe of wacky, peripatetic invention collectors returns for a fourth adventure.
Having in previous episodes failed to comprehend machines, electricity, and sound (each explained with infinite patience by the children they encountered), four doofus scientists now crash their flying Museum of Inventionology outside an elementary school in order to investigate light. After storming the nearest classroom, they surprise a bespectacled kid, who patiently explains what a prism, magnifying glass, crayon, camera, and television are, respectively. As the child talks, the explanations scaffold upon one another. In one instance the discussion of how a prism bends light leads naturally into a talk about how a magnifying glass changes how that light does or does not come together. Each explanation is accompanied by supporting information, examples, diagrams, and historical notes with dates. Alas, by the end the Invention Hunters are no wiser than they were when they began, but young readers may have reaped the benefits. Silly art and jokes abound, perhaps to a lesser extent than in previous outings. Still, with adults as cheerfully clueless as these, it’s hard not to want to see them louse up more kinds of science in the future. The Invention Hunters are diverse; their patient guide in this title has pale skin and straight, black hair.
Readers will cheer the return of these merry, lab-coated schlemiels. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-46796-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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