This quirky selection shows the lively inner life of a less-than-successful inventor who followed her dreams.
What should you do when a house gets dirty?
An idea began to percolate in Frances Gabe’s mind after she hosed off a jam-spotted kitchen wall. An avowed hater of housework during a time when women were questioning their roles as homemakers, Frances wondered how she could create a house that would clean up after itself. This unusual biography, with chatty text and appealing, retro-styled illustrations, has a distinctive focus; it depicts the development of an idea that—at least so far—has not been embraced. Through innovative thinking, resilience, a feminist sensibility, and a touch of zaniness, Frances—who had only a high school education—did succeed in making a house that washed itself, but despite the attention the house garnered, it was deemed impractical (indoor raincoats and multiple machines were seen as too much). Still, her enthusiasm, purpose, and originality shine through in this gently humorous selection, showing that effort is worthwhile, and besides, “maybe one day a young inventor will figure out how to build on Frances’s ideas—and go out and do something about it.” Frances was white, but the young girl staring determinedly at building blocks opposite this statement is a child of color.
This quirky selection shows the lively inner life of a less-than-successful inventor who followed her dreams. (author’s note, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 5-10)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1943147-65-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: The Innovation Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort.
A look at the unique ways that 11 globe-spanning animal species construct their homes.
Each creature garners two double-page spreads, which Cherrix enlivens with compelling and at-times jaw-dropping facts. The trapdoor spider constructs a hidden burrow door from spider silk. Sticky threads, fanning from the entrance, vibrate “like a silent doorbell” when walked upon by unwitting insect prey. Prairie dogs expertly dig communal burrows with designated chambers for “sleeping, eating, and pooping.” The largest recorded “town” occupied “25,000 miles and housed as many as 400 million prairie dogs!” Female ants are “industrious insects” who can remove more than a ton of dirt from their colony in a year. Cathedral termites use dirt and saliva to construct solar-cooled towers 30 feet high. Sasaki’s lively pictures borrow stylistically from the animal compendiums of mid-20th-century children’s lit; endpapers and display type elegantly suggest the blues of cyanotypes and architectural blueprints. Jarringly, the lead spread cheerfully extols the prowess of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef, “the world’s largest living structure,” while ignoring its accelerating, human-abetted destruction. Calamitously, the honeybee hive is incorrectly depicted as a paper-wasps’ nest, and the text falsely states that chewed beeswax “hardens into glue to shape the hive.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort. (selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5625-9
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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