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FLYING DEEP

Name: FLYING DEEP
Author: Michelle Cusolito
ISBN: 978-1-58089-811-9

CLIMB INSIDE DEEP-SEA SUBMERSIBLE ALVIN

by Michelle Cusolito ; illustrated by Nicole Wong ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2018

An appealing, exhilarating, and informative vicarious journey of discovery.

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Readers join an Alvin pilot and scientists in an exciting journey as they voyage down deep to the ocean floor to collect samples and conduct research.

Named for Allyn Vine, who helped pioneer deep submergence research and technology for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Alvin helped in the exploration of the Titanic wreckage in 1986. “Imagine you’re the pilot of Alvin, a deep-sea submersible barely big enough for three,” the engaging text begins. Cusolito’s inviting, “you are there” narration puts readers inside the submersible to discover what one wears, eats, and talks about during a typical eight-hour journey to learn about life inhabiting the deepest realms of our oceans. How do you breathe? What kind of music might you listen to? How do you see when you “enter thick blackness”? The answers to those and many other questions are answered. The voyage down is not without perils: “Fishing nets or anchor chains could entangle Alvin and trap you.” On the seafloor, “Eerie spires loom. Black smokers blast scalding water and poisonous, sooty particles from deep inside Earth.” The digitally created illustrations evoke the dark mysteriousness of the deep ocean and depict the crew as a man of color, a white woman, and a white man. Endmatter explains how Alvin works and describes the author’s and illustrator’s research.

An appealing, exhilarating, and informative vicarious journey of discovery. (glossary, further reading) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 22, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-58089-811-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

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I AM GRAVITY

by Henry Herz ; illustrated by Mercè López ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2024

An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.

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An introduction to gravity.

The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.

An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: April 15, 2024

ISBN: 9781668936849

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tilbury House

Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
edited by Henry Herz

- BOOK REVIEW
WINK
edited by Henry Herz ; illustrated by Adam Gustavson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HITHERTO SECRET EXPERIMENTS OF MARIE CURIE
edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Henry Herz

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A PLACE FOR RAIN

by Michelle Schaub ; illustrated by Blanca Gómez ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2024

Enticing and eco-friendly.

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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)