This dynamic book for kids and adults overflows with scientific knowledge and delights.
This debut educational, activities-filled graphic novel takes readers on a grand tour of the world’s biggest particle physics laboratory.
Diamante styles her work as a game book, making readers the protagonists. They are at CERN, on the border between France and Switzerland. Their adventure begins by choosing to be a tourist, a CERN researcher, or a student. Each of these roles will send them bouncing around the work as they traverse the particle-smashing Large Hadron Collider or try to reach one of its four massive detectors. Each role also comes with further choices—one helper and one or more tools—and picking the wrong thing may have disastrous consequences. Along the way, they will meet such animated characters as pet cockatiel Cheepy; CERN guide Marta; and Schrödy, an adorably snarky cat more interested in food than assisting anyone. There are numerous obstacles as well, from a hacker whom readers are racing against for a password to access the late Professor Virtualli’s robot-controlling code. The author provides the protagonists with entertaining choices. In one case, grabbing the wrong piece of cake could prematurely end their stories. But no matter where readers go, the novel practically bursts with quizzes, games, and wonderful scientific tidbits, like backgrounds on famous physicists and the origin of the Big Bang moniker. It’s an educationally rich book for all ages, with plenty of humor. Schrödy, for example, takes over the glossary and puts his own spin on it; he adds comments on “annoying” humans and claims that “terribly dangerous” dogs are food thieves. Flandoli’s playful artwork only elevates the fun, filling the pages with cartoonish animal expressions and colorful particles. Some illustrations showcase intriguing details, like a crowd of CERN Control Centre operators. Readers may fare better with a print copy of the work, as it requires endless page-flipping and even, as the author encourages, jotting down checkmarks and game answers.
This dynamic book for kids and adults overflows with scientific knowledge and delights.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-981-12-3490-3
Page Count: 150
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Co
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
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