A simple and clear interactive scientific exploration.
An imaginary lab and a real experiment introduce matter.
An experienced writer of science books for young readers invites her audience to explore matter in a chemistry lab. She focuses on two concepts: mass and three of the states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas. These are intriguingly presented in a manner reminiscent of Hervé Tullet’s Press Here (2011). Readers are invited to tilt, jiggle, and tap on the book to see how matter can change shape or form without changing mass. Using first a blob of clay and then a bunch of cherries for her imagined experiments, Schaefer concludes with directions for a real demonstration of making gas with baking soda (a solid) and lemon juice (a liquid) to create bubbles of carbon dioxide (a gas). (She reminds readers to do their experiments with a grown-up.) She draws connections between these concepts and readers themselves as she points out that we all have solids, liquids, and gases in our bodies. The science is solid and the teaching appropriate for the age. Clean illustrations set on plentiful white space aid understanding. Rereaders will notice that all the materials and equipment depicted throughout, even the white coats, can be found on the first spread. Human characters are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A simple and clear interactive scientific exploration. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781623542436
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard.
Rotner follows Hello Spring (2017) with this salute to the fall season.
Name a change seen in northern climes in fall, and Rotner likely covers it here, from plants, trees, and animals to the food we harvest: seeds are spread, the days grow shorter and cooler, the leaves change and fall (and are raked up and jumped in), some animals migrate, and many families celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. As in the previous book, the photographs (presented in a variety of sizes and layouts, all clean) are the stars here, displaying both the myriad changes of the season and a multicultural array of children enjoying the outdoors in fall. These are set against white backgrounds that make the reddish-orange print pop. The text itself uses short sentences and some solid vocabulary (though “deep sleep” is used instead of “hibernate”) to teach readers the markers of autumn, though in the quest for simplicity, Rotner sacrifices some truth. In several cases, the addition of just a few words would have made the following oversimplified statements reflect reality: “Birds grow more feathers”; “Cranberries float and turn red.” Also, Rotner includes the statement “Bees store extra honey in their hives” on a page about animals going into deep sleep, implying that honeybees hibernate, which is false.
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3869-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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