An inspiring account of a notable early role model who pursued a STEM career despite sexism.
A young girl’s curiosity, spurred by the whaling ships she saw near her Nantucket home, led to careers in astronomy and teaching.
This picture-book biography follows Maria Mitchell, who was born in 1818 to a White Quaker family. Encouraged by her father to research and follow her passion for science, she sought more than a life of needlework, housework, husband, and children; she learned to read the stars in the sky by using a sextant, a metronome, and a chronometer. At a young age, she repaired a chronometer for a surprised sea captain (“What could a girl possibly know of mathematics and machines?”). Her future then became limitless. Maria started her own school, became a librarian, and entered a contest to find a new comet, with a reward provided by the king of Denmark. Despite a broken telescope, which she also repaired, she won the challenge and was eventually offered a position as professor of astronomy in a women’s college in New York. This stirring account is told in an uplifting voice highlighting Mitchell’s youthful inquisitiveness and determination to expand her knowledge. Alary emphasizes that Mitchell owed her education, in part, to her enlightened father, who foresaw the talent, ambition, and drive in his daughter; a gifted teacher herself, Mitchell endowed her students with information about great scientists, mathematics, and faraway places. Textured collage art brings the text to life. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An inspiring account of a notable early role model who pursued a STEM career despite sexism. (author's note, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 6-10)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0348-7
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
