Review: Insect Detective

Insect Detective by Steve Voake

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Enjoyable book with differentiated text. There is a read-aloud narrative in larger print, and a factual text vignette relevant to what the narrative is saying. The illustrations are very decorative and partly realistic. It could be a good experience for a read-aloud. I don't know that anyone would seek it out for facts on insects, because the outline knowledge presented is very basic. I would say almost any insect topic book, or internet page would have these facts.

The read-aloud narrative is the strength of the writing, and the almost fairy-like illustrations. The book does little to build on knowledge that might be gained by an early inquiry, or to send readers clearly outward to do or inquire more. There is a small amount of back matter, including an index--all seem like a nod to the standards and tests.



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Review: Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire!

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Thanks for the tip, Lu! We enjoyed listening to this in the car, and filling in at home with the book in between.

The tongue-in-cheek tone reminded me of the Alexander McCall Smith mysteries, like the Prof. Dr. von Igelfeld books. So many laughing moments in this book--Pearl couldn't help herself and acted out several times during the week the moment when for dramatic effect in the courtoom, Mr. Bunny paused so long that "several councilbunnies went out for coffee. One had time to order a short decaf double shot no whip mocha iced frappuccino to go. Mr. Bunny paused so long that when the coffee came he had time to change his mind to a venti semi-skim soy no sugar caramel macchiato with no whip but double caramel and a reduced fat skinny poppy seed and lemon muffin, hot, no butter."

The book does not waste the fact that these are bunnies. There are foxes out to eat them, which makes for a great backbone of themes that depend on the differences between animals and humans. Mostly, it I loved the irony of the bunnies being more 'civilized' than Madeline's hippy parents, Flo and Mildred, who btw got the best lines in the book--and Polly Horvath's reading of their voices had me in stitches, while driving. I hope she comes to CCIRA next year.



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Review: We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was riveting. I couldn't put it down, told with so many primary sources in such a way as to evoke the humanity of each of the key moments. Full of basic outline information I had heard many times before, but with all the empty space in between filled in.

The book is very spare on visuals, which is interesting. There must be mountains of visuals, but maybe still under copyright and difficult to get permissions without great expense. Still, those chosen are powerful and well-suited to the moments and chapters they are in. The story moves like a gripping page-turner anyway, so I didn't mind the thicker text.

Because each chapter is broken up graphically into episodes with a subheader and divider, there is encouragement to browse. I browsed around a lot at first, and then found myself reading whole swathes of the book in order. So I liked how the structure allowed the freedom of browsing, but then drew me in.

The quote-sourcing is thorough and complete, which seems typical for this kind of book. I'm realizing that this style of sourcing seems to come from a journalistic ethic of sources, and so I am thinking it comes from that tradition in writing. It's also good historiography.

While I am sure some of the bibliographic items listed for further information would be helpful, because this book relies so heavily on primary sources I always want to be guided directly to the places online where I can see these.




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Review: Animal Grossapedia

Animal Grossapedia by Melissa Stewart

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Pearl (8) was all over this book. She read it cover to cover in one sitting, and was walking around the house for days afterward spouting the more memorable facts. For example, that camels fight by throwing up on each other. This made for some interesting family fights over the next two days...

Back matter: Glossary, index, and additional list of books to find out more.

All of these facts could be found independently, but collecting the grossness all in one place was a great fusion move on the traditional animal menagerie book. Grossness is subjective, and some of these things aren't really a gross-out (sapsuckers), but they all deal with bodily functions.

What is the role of sources in a book like this? We would expect factual accuracy and good research, but there's not much here to demand any serious knowledge of science. And would there need to be sources on each double page spread? This is the same question I have for the DK Eyewitness series--each page turn may be a new chapter with new sources.



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Review: Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure

Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure by Jim Murphy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The best thing about this story is that while it is topical, Murphy found the narrative thread and followed it. The question of resistance to antibiotics is the big finish this story is all leading toward. He builds up TB as a 'character' almost, that gains depth without being anthropomorphized or trivialized in the process. I

t's always shocking to me how recently we are talking about people not believing in 'germ theory' as the great explanation of major diseases. Even fewer than 100 years ago, it was difficult for this idea to take hold in some ways. I knew my great grandpa Christensen when he was old, and he was born in the 1880s, just about the time Koch first identified TB bacteria. The disbelief is so much like the current disbelief about climate change. Because the answer to TB was major change in municipal planning and local government agendas, there was wide inertia and resistance.

Well-sourced. No complaints here.

The narrative and depth provides the aspect to this book that makes it more vital than what one would find simply on the internet. Still, the basic outline for this entire book can be found in the wikipedia article, which bothers me. Not because it suggests anything about Murphy's work, but because if I were researching TB why would I spend the time to read this book instead of just going over the key points. The book offers depth, it characterizes the main players more deeply, and also highlights the injustices. But what would have made it truly stand out as different from the wikipedia article? This is the question authors have to ask in topical writing today.



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Review: The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs: A Scientific Mystery

The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs: A Scientific Mystery by Sandra Markle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It was great to see an information book with this kind of engaging story line. The search for the fungus, and the story after its discovery were interesting to follow, and scientific process and scientists at work were foregrounded by Markle instead of just presenting basic facts--almost like a crime procedural. This is vital for the survival of the printed informational picturebook. There will be thousands of titles in the future that go only to ebook format, because unless a book does something more like this one does with the narrative, then it will be hard for publishers to justify the cost of going to paper and boards.

Sources: I wished Markle and her editors had put the acknowledgments in the back matter and clearly discussed how thoroughly involved she has been with the scientists and volunteers behind this inquiry. The small fine print should be larger and have some more explanation about who the people are. This was very credible sourcing, and should be vindicated more in print. I would have preferred sourcing to the index or glossary if it came down to a choice.



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Review: Aphids

Aphids by Colleen Sexton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Very good photographs, but this is token representation of a topic Scholastic knows needs to be covered by someone. The text gives all the most important facts, corresponding well with the images.

The thing that is clearly missing is what aphids are actually about. They destroy plants, have a symbiotic relationship based on giving candy to ants, and get eaten by ladybugs. Is that it for aphids?

There must be some other way to link these to the circle of life? Or some compelling storyline. I like the fact that the ants protect aphids from ladybugs when the aphids are making them honeydew. It's kind of a mafioso thing. That's what the story should be.

Thanks for getting this book for me, Lu!



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Review: Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant

Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Preschool propaganda ;-)

As a read-aloud, the chant in the text is just a way to mark the time while looking at the well-composed photos of heirloom vegetables carefully arranged. I was taken in by plenty of the photos, but not so much by the text. What could Sayre have done to provide a narrative structure with a wordless book?



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Review: The Wing Wing Brothers Math Spectacular!

The Wing Wing Brothers Math Spectacular! by Ethan Long

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This arithmetic book demonstrates each arithmetic concept with carnival tricks (plate spinning, pie juggling). Unless it were a read-aloud it wouldn't be what helped kids learn the vocabulary and meanings. For example, it defines the 'plus sign' in words, "+ means plus". It's one of those things where if you already know how to read the words, you probably already know what a plus sign is. People who are trying to write to work with the curriculum should probably talk to some school teachers.

Some funny gags and an animator's sensibility to the drawings are both a plus to the book making it a decent experience. But amid the larger stack of informational books, I had a hard time picking this one up and finishing it. Despite the artwork, the arithmetic presentation, the storyline, was boring.

Hmmm. Back matter correlates the book to the Common Core State Standards. I guess we'll be seeing more of that in the coming years, but it's a bit of a shock to see it so prominent in the back matter, as if this is more important than the fact-checking which gets much smaller print under the CCSS blurb.

No designer credited. One of the things that drives me crazy in books that use comic strip boxes in picturebooks is when you can't tell whether a sequence of boxes is supposed to go all the way across the gutter or whether you're supposed to wrap around to the left again when you hit the gutter. This book had a few spreads where the design of facing pages made this difficult to navigate.



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Review: DK Eyewitness Books: Cat

DK Eyewitness Books: Cat by Juliet Clutton-Brock

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I'm a fan of the Eyewitness format. DK learned the best of what they could from magazine graphic design and has applied a powerful template. My son Alma loves this series, including the videos.

This book and Jenkins' Dog & Cat book both presented incorrect information about the cat's collarbone. I found the right answers on wikipedia and other internet sources. This was disappointing. What kind of research standard is there here?

KOBO: The ereader displays only half the double spread at a time, which interrupts the Eyewitness formula of one dominant central image that crosses the gutter and takes up most of the page. This is an awesome format, and cutting it in half just doesn't work. I don't have much hope right now for the ereader, especially where informational text is concerned. Putting a full double page spread on a 7" screen is just too small an image, especially when there are captions, diagrams, and text vignettes in smaller print.

Who will be the first company to come out with a double-page ereader that has a book-like gutter?



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Review: Dogs and Cats

Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The remarkable thing about this book is that he does so many things with the paper to give the cats and dogs realistic features. I enjoyed that. It appears Jenkins does his own design with maybe staff designers behind him.

The 'turn the book over' thing is just a gimmick and I'm not sure it actually helps the book any. Kind of interesting and made me pay attention to the bookness of the thing.

So I read this book at the same time I had the DK Eyewitness Cat book out on my Kobo ereader. Jenkins' book said cats have no collarbone, and the DK book said clearly that they DO have a collarbone. I went to the internet and found they were both wrong. What cats do have is unattached clavicles that enable the cat to collapse the collarbone structure to pass through narrow spaces. Come on guys, do the research! I found this more detailed information on wikipedia and in three other places. Because the dog and cat sub-genre is so thoroughly overdone, I guess people don't even consider doing careful research or going to the science. Any veterinary book on cats would have had this information.



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Review: Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy by Nathan Hale

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Sources: Okay, it was refreshing that Hale was honest about the use of secondary sources--even part of the book's charm. But his excuse just wasn't true:
Hale: These books are all secondary sources. Didn't you use any actual research documents, like newspapers and journals from the period?

Baby: No. The people at the library won't give us that stuff.
Hale: Why not?
Baby: Because we're babies!
Hale: Oh, right.
Baby: You need a college degree to get into the original documents.

Maybe the special collections libraries at universities are exclusive this way (not by possessing a degree, but by being enrolled), but most of the primary source documents anyone would ever need for Revolutionary War era research are available on the internet. To me this just seems lazy.

The comic relief gags to keep the narrative moving forward were corny yet entertaining. The drawings were crisp, realistic, and easy to look at. I like Hale's style. Hale cooperated with Chad Beckerman on the design, and acknowledged Matt Holm for some design tips.

The whole point of this is to be the lighter, engaging side of history so I was okay that it just glosses the high points of the plot while not delving into all the humanity. Leave that to another author and project.

The narrative history genre is great for presenting the broad outline of events and their connections in a memorable way.



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Review: Iceberg, Right Ahead! The Tragedy of the Titanic

Iceberg, Right Ahead! The Tragedy of the Titanic by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This book is highly browsable, with each header providing a self-contained 'story' about a person or an aspect of the ship's story. While organized in chronological sections, anyone who already knows the order of the story won't be thrown off by browsing around. It was good to see the contemporary photos, illustrations, and diagrams from the time of the sinking, but just as interesting to see some of the underwater photos and museum exhibit pieces.

Overall, I find the staying power of this story strange. There are thousands of well-documented shipwreck stories and many lives lost. In its own way, this book has become almost a genre. There's a clear set of expectations for a sense of darkness and tragedy, a theme running around the possibility the sinking could have been averted, the hubris of the builders, the injustices of lost lives. So why is this story so iconic?

Some masterful design choices made the book compelling. The sea-green and black color scheme in particular seems to be lifted from many of the actual underwater photos, and contributes to the tone. These colors were used for the text vignettes and the diagrams to good effect. No designer was credited, which is a shame.

Sources: The book is very well sourced, with a thorough page sourcing section, a two-page bibliography, and a full page of outside resources for further information. While all of this information might be found on the internet if one were to look up specific topics or people, having it all compiled and organized in one place is a handy strength.



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Review: Get the Scoop on Animal Poop

Get the Scoop on Animal Poop by Dawn Cusick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



So I understand the lure of the pun with a book like this, but there are seriously four other books with almost exactly this same title. The gross topics are certainly popular, and this book rides that wave.

The facts in this book are pretty interesting, though. I thought her approach to scatology was very thorough, and browsable. In fact, this isn't really a book about poop at all--it's a complete survey of animals using poop as the unifying topic. Just as another science book might focus on habitat or food, this one cuts through the animal world with the one topic of focus.

Zombie ants and animals that eat poop are two favorite pages. I enjoyed how long the book was, without losing its high interest--it's really very thorough.

Sources: Not so good. Cusick gives a handful of books, but no evidence of her research. Without clear sourcing of the research, and no evidence of her own qualifications I want more connection to the science and research world of coprology.

What does this book do that an internet search wouldn't? A lot of the facts in the book are right there on wikipedia, but this book's cachet is its volume of facts, the number of animals it works with, and the way this helps diversify and add interest to the topic. There isn't an easy-to-find web site that covers this topic.



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Review: Heart of a Samurai

Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



An enjoyable adventure story--the cover calls it a 'real life adventure.' Being aboard a whaling ship in the mid-1800s can't have been half this romantic, but Preus focuses on the personal wonder of being possibly the first Japanese national to live in the USA. All the facts jibe with what I remember from my Japanese History courses umpteen years ago in college. The shift from the Shogunate to the Meiji Restoration opens Japan to foreign contact, and within a few years emissaries from Japan are scouting the Western world for anything and everything that will help put Japan on competitive footing. As historical fiction, the book feels accurate and Preus gives a clear set of sources, and recounts which plot elements were taken directly from historical record.

As biography, I found it less interesting than I hoped for. While Manjiro was a strong central character, I was hoping for more inner conflict and maybe a more 3-dimensional character. I can't tell that Preus wants to tell us something interesting about humanity or explore someone's inner workings as we have come to expect from great fact-based writers for grownups (like Michener or Gore Vidal). Also, there is a clear set of primary sources to draw from--Manjiro's drawings and notebooks. This might have been the thing to focus on to create some post-modern sensibility or character development instead of just the straightforward chronological plot-based story.



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