Eye-opening for young people who often take their technology for granted.
Following Just Like Beverly, by Vicki Conrad and illustrated by David Hohn (2019), this second entry in the Growing to Greatness series, featuring creative people from the Pacific Northwest, focuses on Bill Gates and the curiosity and ambition that led to his prominence in the world of personal computing.
As the third William Henry Gates, Bill was called Trey until he switched from his public school to the strict and exclusive Lakeside School in Seattle. Bored in school, Gates was finally inspired when he and his friends discovered a ASR-33 Teletype, which spurred Bill to begin programming, suspecting this was the forefront of a home-computer revolution. At Harvard, he and his friends began creating their own software and later created a company initially called Micro-Soft. The text is lively but frequently vague, with occasional odd phrases and ideas left unexplained. For example, when Gates became concerned about poor children around the world dying of diseases for lack of inexpensive vaccines, the text states, “Bill decided to turn caring into action,” but doesn’t specify exactly what he did, missing an opportunity to showcase Gates’ philanthropic work. Mildenberger’s illustrations nicely capture the energy of the text and include brown faces of classmates and on his travels. Young readers and listeners will get the titular message loud and clear.
Eye-opening for young people who often take their technology for granted. (further information, timeline, glossary) (Picture book/biography. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63217-176-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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