All about the apple that (contrary to legend) did not hit Isaac Newton’s head in the mid-17th century—and what became of the tree from which it fell.
The apple may have missed, but the insight into why it fell down instead of, say, up struck the young genius hard enough to revolutionize our understanding of how the physical universe works…and to turn the tree into a destination for generations of pilgrims. As Redding relates with alliterative vim, the tree survived a lightning strike around 1820, though pieces of it were carved into a chair—“a perfect perch for pondering”—and, much later, carried onto the International Space Station. It still produces fruit to this day, sending offspring to grow around the world. In the wake of illustrating Nancy I. Sanders’ The Very Oldest Pear Tree (2020), Imamura portrays the tree from first tiny seed to gnarled snag, inspiring visitors from Albert Einstein in 1930 to Stephen Hawking in his wheelchair in 1987. As the centuries pass, racially diverse background characters begin to diversify the mostly White cast…and on the final page, a brown-skinned child stands in for readers with, the author writes, a similar “potential to change the world.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sweet windfall of history and inspiration. (biographical notes, bibliography, timeline) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-296736-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S HISTORY | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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A highlights reel of the great scientist’s life and achievements, from clandestine early schooling to the founding of Warsaw’s Radium Institute.
In big sequential panels Bayarri dashes through Curie’s career, barely pausing at significant moments (“Mother! A letter just arrived. It’s from Sweden,” announces young Irène. “Oh, really?…They’re awarding me another Nobel!”) in a seeming rush to cover her youth, family life, discoveries, World War I work, and later achievements (with only a closing timeline noting her death, of “aplastic anemia”). Button-eyed but recognizable figures in the panels pour out lecture-ish dialogue. This is well stocked with names and scientific terms but offered with little or no context—characteristics shared by co-published profiles on Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity (“You and your thought experiments, Albert!” “We love it! The other day, Schrödinger thought up one about a cat”), Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution, and Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion. Dark-skinned Tierra del Fuegans make appearances in Darwin, prompting the young naturalist to express his strong anti-slavery views; otherwise the cast is white throughout the series. Engagingly informal as the art and general tone of the narratives are, the books will likely find younger readers struggling to keep up, but kids already exposed to the names and at least some of the concepts will find these imports, translated from the Basque, helpful if, at times, dry overviews.
Together with its companions, too rushed to be first introductions but suitable as second ones. (glossary, index, resource list) (Graphic biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5415-7821-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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A detachable acetate eyepiece lets budding engineers peek into buildings, the inner workings of vehicles from bicycles to submarines, and even a human torso.
Peering through the colored spyglass embedded in the front cover at Lozano’s cartoon scenes makes large areas of red stippling or crosshatching disappear, revealing electrical wiring and other infrastructure in or under buildings, robots at work on an assembly line, the insides of a jet and a container ship, and other hidden areas or facilities. Though younger viewers will get general pictures of how, for instance, internal-combustion (but not electric) cars are propelled, what MRIs and ultrasound scans reveal, and the main steps in printing and binding books, overall the visual detail is radically simplified in Lozano’s assemblages of cartoon images. Likewise, the sheaves of descriptive captions are light on specifics—noting that airplane wings create lift but neglecting to explain just how, say, or why maglev train magnets are supercooled. Still, Wilsher introduces simple machines at the outset (five of the six, anyway), and the ensuing selection of complex ones is current enough to include a spy drone and Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket. Along with displaying a range of skin tones, the human cast of machine users visible in most scenes includes an astronomer wearing a hijab. All in all, it’s a revealing, if sketchy, roll toward David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work Now (2016).
Just the ticket for mechanically curious kids. (Informational novelty. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-912920-20-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: What on Earth Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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