A dozen young teens undergo simulated astronaut training in this fascinating photo journal that’s packed with information on NASA space flights, training equipment, and kid comments about the rigor and excitement of preparing for space travel. Students experience extreme force in the Space Shot, try walking in reduced gravity using the Gravity Chair, and launch their own shuttle, Endeavour, from a simulated Mission Control Station. They develop problem-solving skills working with Legos, and develop teamwork, attempting to construct a cube of PCB pipes underwater. Each page has full-color photographs of the teens using the specialized training equipment and exploring real space modules. There are Amazing Space Facts side boxes, and photographs from NASA astronauts on space missions. Quotes from the participants enliven the text, and the author also imparts odd and interesting facts about how real astronauts manage eating, sleeping, showering, keeping clean, keeping cool, and urinating in space. Written with abundant good humor, this is a really attractive addition to the series with lots of kid appeal. (glossary, bibliography, acknowledgments for sources, no index) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83044-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
Miranda’s book counts the monsters gathering at a birthday party, while a simple rhyming text keeps the tally and surveys the action: “Seven starved monsters are licking the dishes./Eight blow out candles and make birthday wishes.” The counting proceeds to ten, then by tens to fifty, then gradually returns to one, which makes the monster’s mother, a purple pin-headed octopus, very happy. The book is surprisingly effective due to Powell’s artwork; the color has texture and density, as if it were poured onto the page, but the real attention-getter is the singularity of every monster attendee. They are highly individual and, therefore, eminently countable. As the numbers start crawling upward, it is both fun and a challenge to try to recognize monsters who have appeared in previous pages, or to attempt to stay focused when counting the swirling or bunched creatures. The story has glints of humor, and in combination with the illustrations is a grand addition to the counting shelf. (Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201835-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999
Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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