This engaging and insightful biography focuses primarily on Darwin’s five-year voyage aboard the Beagle and the years following in which he formulated and published his revolutionary theories on evolution and natural selection. As a child and adolescent, Darwin is depicted as precocious and insatiably curious but a reluctant student regarding formal studies. Readers are left with a strong understanding of which scientists influenced Darwin in his own research and the process by which he arrived at a unique understanding through his own discoveries and observations. Darwin’s writings are quoted extensively. Sidebars throughout citing cultural and historical milestones offer readers a good sense of Darwin’s times. In an epilogue, the authors offer a concise overview of the controversy Darwin’s theories on evolution and natural selection continues to stir. The text is effectively supported by maps, photographs and other archival images. Backmatter includes chronologies, notes and suggestions for further reading. The detailed focus on Darwin’s scientific pursuits makes this book a good complement to the personal portrait offered in Deborah Heiligman’s Charles & Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (2009). (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59643-374-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Neal Porter/Flash Point/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2010
An impressive sequel.
Boy and fox follow separate paths in postwar rebuilding.
A year after Peter finds refuge with former soldier Vola, he prepares to leave to return to his childhood home. He plans to join the Junior Water Warriors, young people repurposing the machines and structures of war to reclaim reservoirs and rivers poisoned in the conflict, and then to set out on his own to live apart from others. At 13, Peter is competent and self-contained. Vola marvels at the construction of the floor of the cabin he’s built on her land, but the losses he’s sustained have left a mark. He imposes a penance on himself, reimagining the story of rescuing the orphaned kit Pax as one in which he follows his father’s counsel to kill the animal before he could form a connection. He thinks of his heart as having a stone inside it. Pax, meanwhile, has fathered three kits who claim his attention and devotion. Alternating chapters from the fox’s point of view demonstrate Pax’s care for his family—his mate, Bristle; her brother; and the three kits. Pax becomes especially attached to his daughter, who accompanies him on a journey that intersects with Peter’s and allows Peter to not only redeem his past, but imagine a future. This is a deftly nuanced look at the fragility and strength of the human heart. All the human characters read as White. Illustrations not seen.
An impressive sequel. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-293034-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Remarking that ``nothing about the weather is very simple,'' Simon goes on to describe how the sun, atmosphere, earth's rotation, ground cover, altitude, pollution, and other factors influence it; briefly, he also tells how weather balloons gather information. Even for this outstanding author, it's a tough, complex topic, and he's not entirely successful in simplifying it; moreover, the import of the striking uncaptioned color photos here isn't always clear. One passage—``Cumulus clouds sometimes build up into towering masses called cumulus congestus, or swelling cumulus, which may turn into cumulonimbus clouds''—is superimposed on a blue-gray, cloud-covered landscape. But which kind of clouds are these? Another photo, in blue-black and white, shows what might be precipitation in the upper atmosphere, or rain falling on a darkened landscape, or...? Generally competent and certainly attractive, but not Simon's best. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-10546-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
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