Valuable skills and tips for safely enjoying the great outdoors wrapped in an easy-to-read, fun guide.
This entry and a companion in the Go Wild series encourage kids to get out in nature and give them some of the skills that will help them survive and enjoy their journeys.
This slim, colorful volume teaches skills vital in emergencies (or maybe just on the next camping trip): building a shelter, making fire (with matches, flint and steel, and a fire drill), knife safety, getting safe drinking water, catching food (fishing, making and using a slingshot—but only if you are truly starving), foraging for food, cooking, and calling for help with fire signals, mirrors, or ground signals. Easy-to-follow numbered steps and clear cartoon illustrations make it easy for kids to pick up and then try out their outdoor skills, and most of the recommended supplies are either common or cheaply obtained. The simultaneously publishing Be an Explorer teaches kids navigational skills—map, compass, finding your way without either, and also in fog, making a map, and hunting for geocached treasure—and how to identify rock types and some common rocks, find fossils and shells, predict weather based on clouds and other clues, avoid bad weather, and observe the night sky—the phases of the moon and some constellations. Both books emphasize safety and that adults should be involved in helping kids learn and practice the skills presented. Humorous cartoon animals throughout and a closing spread of factoids round out the fun.
Valuable skills and tips for safely enjoying the great outdoors wrapped in an easy-to-read, fun guide. (table of contents, glossary) (Informational picture book. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4677-6356-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hungry Tomato/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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