THE DAY MOON AND EARTH HAD AN ARGUMENT, cogent, cute, helpful, and sneakily educational

THE DAY MOON AND EARTH HAD AN ARGUMENT
DAVID DUFF (illus. Noemi Vola)
Princeton Architectural Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Embark on an astronomical adventure through the solar system with this whimsical picture book that begins with a little rift in one of the most celebrated relationships in the universe.

All friends have disagreements. But when the friends are the Moon and planet Earth, the consequences are pretty cosmic!

After 4.5 billion years together, Moon has had enough of Earth. So, she packs her things and sets off to see what the solar system has to offer. On her galactic tour, Moon sweeps young readers along on a delightful and educational journey.

From scorching Venus to giant Jupiter, Moon encounters the oddities and charms of all the other planets on her journey. But as she reaches the cold and lonely edge of the solar system, she begins to wonder whether Earth is really so bad after all . . .

With vibrant illustrations, a dash of humor, and heartfelt explorations of emotions like anger and empathy, this children’s book about friendship beautifully conveys the value of connection and the invaluable lesson that sometimes what we’re looking for is closer than we think.

Offering a fun and practical review of the planets and their characteristics throughout, The Day Moon and Earth Had an Argument also includes two full spreads at the back of the book filled with fascinating facts about our solar system, information about gravity, how the moon was formed, and more.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I just can't with this book! It's so completely, beguilingly adorable. I love the art, which of course is utterly subjective. I'm also a big fan of sneaking two kinds of message into one story...astronomy lessons, emotional guidance, and the commonsensical way they're framed together. The farther away from each other Earth and Moon get, the less things are familiar, and that's scientifically accurate as well as a good thing to reinforce about friendship in this very young (four or so on the lap-reader end, maybe six or a slower seven independently reading) target group.

close neighbor or not Venus is no Earth!

In offering sneaky factual lessons while addressing a very real emotional problem lots of kids will face as they move outside the family circle. Friendship is a skill, one we're all wise to maintain with care. Anger, feeling hurt, not understanding what just happened or knowing what to do about it...all those things are dealt with (while sneaking in astronomy lessons).

all the way out, and still no one's like Earth

Making things right is hard, but it can be done, and it's a big accomplishment when it's done. Wonderful little tale delivering a big message (and sneaking in cool facts in its pretty illustrations).

SEA WONDERS: The Octopus, the Cuttlefish, and the Squid, beautiful, informative, and very reasonably priced

SEA WONDERS: The Octopus, the Cuttlefish, and the Squid
MARCO COLOMBO & FRANCESCO TOMASINELLI (illus. Giulia De Amicis)
Princeton Architectural Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$13.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: Explore the world of extraordinary marine creatures in this beautifully illustrated guide to thirty species of octopuses, cuttlefish, and squids.

In Sea Wonders, discover the remarkable characteristics of cephalopods, enigmatic sea creatures with arms directly attached to their heads, who are masters of survival and transformation. Thirty species are collected in this fascinating guidebook, detailing their most surprising habits and abilities:

Enterprising, resourceful, and intelligent, they know how to solve problems and can use objects as tools.

They are notorious for escaping from aquaria.

They can recognize people and can even feel dislike for some!

Some species, such as the orchid cuttlefish, are among the most colorful organisms in the oceans

Others, like the blue-ringed octopus, are famous for their lethal bite.

Some of the world’s largest invertebrates are cephalopods—including giant squids the size of a bus—about which very little research exists to this day.

The first half of the book contains fifty gorgeously detailed and realistic illustrations and delves into the species' main characteristics and the secrets of their underwater world. The second half features specimen cards with scientific information and fun facts for easy reference.

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES: Cephalopods are fascinating creatures increasingly understood as intelligent, sophisticated, and resourceful animals. Their unexpected cognitive capacities encourage us to reflect on how we relate to the natural world, making it clear that it is not only mammals and birds who deserve our empathy.

THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED SCIENTIFIC FACTS: Various species of octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish are explored in these pages, with in-depth information on habitats and habits as well as fun facts.

FOREWORD BY OSCAR-WINNING FILMMAKER: Craig Foster, producer of the 2020 Academy Award–winning documentary My Octopus Teacher is a naturalist, ocean explorer, and author of Underwater Wild: My Octopus Teacher's Extraordinary World.

Perfect for:

Anyone with an interest in marine creatures and the undersea world

Birthday, housewarming, or seasonal gift for nature lovers

Oceanography and marine biology students, teachers, and professionals

Fans of animal and nature books like Amphibious Soul, Oceanology: The Secrets of the Sea Revealed, and The Soul of an Octopus

Marco Colombo (co-author) is an environmental guide, scuba diving master, TV scientific consultant, and wildlife and underwater photographer. His photographs and articles have appeared in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Nat'Images, and elsewhere. Colombo has won multiple categories in the Natural History Museum, London’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. He is the author of more than ten books about biodiversity and conservation issues, a frequent speaker, and a university instructor.
Francesco Tomasinelli (co-author) is a freelance biologist, science communicator, and photographer. As a photojournalist, he has joined several scientific expeditions in the Tropics and has documented various conservation programs in Italy and abroad. Tomasinelli has written more than three hundred magazine articles and fifteen books on natural sciences, served as an animal expert for Italian television, worked as an instructor for various learning institutions, including Università di Genova, Pavia, dell’Insubria, and Politecnico di Milano, and created a number of scientific exhibitions.
Giulia De Amicis (illustrator) is a designer and illustrator who presents complex information through infographics, data visualization, cartography, and illustration. She focuses on projects related to environmental issues, marine conservation, animal welfare, human rights, and human geography for clients including newspapers, research institutes, NGOs, and the educational sector. De Amicis has illustrated several picture books for National Geographic Kids and other publishers. She works and lives in Brighton, UK.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: My affection for Tentacled Americans is well-known enough not to need restating here and now. You can imagine my excitement when this beauty, about my dotes, written and illustrated by real scientists, endorse by the My Octopus Teacher guy, came onto my radar.

I'll say that I love the way we're taught about the life and the habitat of each species covered. It's lovely to have such evocative illustrations to enjoy as well. There's a corking "further reading" section, and as this is a popular science book intended to bring the cephalopods to our homes and thoughts, I wasn't distressed by the lack of inline citations.

The Table of Contents should act as a pretty fair guide to the purpose and organization of the book:

The first text/illustration spread for aesthetic evaluation.

Interior spreads, showing the text/illustration interrelationships found throughout the book.

I'm really impressed that there was as much detail as exists in the text. As mentioned, it's not intended as more than an overview to present the amazing beings in quick, absorbable way. What a beautiful set of illustrations! They're not precisely correlated with the introductory text but close enough to make them handy references.

All in all a lovely (self-)gift for the fancier of these remarkable creatures. It's also a great gift item for the younger person considering the world's ocean as a subject of study. Older middle-grade students will be challenged, scientists not involved, but the amateur of any age will love it.

The species-by-species section's all organized this way.

Too cool to leave out! Enjoy them all.

A SHORT HISTORY OF BLACK CRAFT IN TEN OBJECTS, beautiful gift object as well as solid primer on crafts-as-art

A SHORT HISTORY OF BLACK CRAFT IN TEN OBJECTS
ROBELL AWAKE (illus. Johnalynn Holland; afterword by Tiffany Momon)
Princeton Architectural Press (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$12.99 ebook editions, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Ten beautifully illustrated essays tell the stories of handcrafted objects and their makers, providing inspiration and insight into Black history and craftsmanship.

Black artisans have long been central to American art and design, creating innovative and highly desired work against immense odds. Atlanta-based chairmaker and scholar Robell Awake explores the stories behind ten cornerstones of Black craft, including:

The celebrated wooden chairs of Richard Poynor, an enslaved craftsman who began a dynasty of Tennessee chairmakers.

The elegant wrought-iron gates of Philip Simmons, seen to this day throughout Charleston, South Carolina, whose work features motifs from the Low Country.

The inventive assemblage art and yard shows of Joe Minter, James Hampton, Bessie Harvey, and others, who draw on African spiritual traditions to create large-scale improvisational art installations.

From the enslaved potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, to Ann Lowe, the couture dressmaker who made Jacqueline Kennedy's wedding dress, to Gullah Geechee sweetgrass basket makers, to the celebrated quilters of Gee's Bend, A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects illuminates the work of generations of Black craftspeople, foregrounding their enduring contributions to American craft.

BLACK CRAFT AND AMERICANA: Delving into the history of Black skilled artisans, estimated to have outnumbered white artisans five to one in the southern United States in the late 1800s, this unique art history book celebrates handcrafted objects that reflect the dynamic nature of Black culture.

DYNAMIC ILLUSTRATED ESSAYS: Luminous color illustrations by artist Johnalynn Holland highlight beloved craft objects and their makers, creating a fascinating volume to study and treasure.

ART HISTORY EXPERTISE: Author Robell Awake is a notable furniture maker, artisan, and educator whose work has been featured in the New York Times and in group shows at Verso Gallery in New York City and the Center for Craft in Asheville, NC. Dr. Tiffany Momon, who contributes an afterword, is the founder and co-director of the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive and a leading scholar of Black history and African American placemaking throughout the southeast.

BEAUTIFUL GIFT BOOK: The gorgeous design is ideal for art collectors and craft enthusiasts, as a keepsake reminder of Black heritage, for Black History Month and beyond.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: There's a lot to love about Black History Month. One big thing is its use as a goad to look out for Black creators, and creativity centering Black life and experiences, in my otherwise very, very white life. I am an old white man and really appreciate the push to look out for ideas and art I don't see on the regular.

I think you're going to like it. Look:

Laying out the course we'll follow.

So beautiful, the evocation of the spirit of the quilt.


They're stunning as art; they're vital as cultural documents.

This kind of pottery makes my hairs stand up. Such a shot of Truth! It's a personality, it's a real Presence, an avatar of interiority.



Speaking real, home truth there, Dave.


It's a bureau that, as I look at it, is exactly like one Mama had; I wonder if that one was made by a Black craftsman, and I have no way to know....

A beautiful object about beautiful objects. An adornment for the coffee table. The essays aren't exactly stunning prose, or hugely academic; they're tonally appropriate enhancements of one's existing, or good seedstock for one's entirely absent, knowledge base of the long, long tradition of Black art in the craft sphere. Can't quite give it that full fifth star because it's doing its job but not stretching me as a reader; it will others, though.

UNRULY FIGURES: Twenty Tales of Rebels, Rulebreakers, and Revolutionaries You've (Probably) Never Heard Of, surprised and amazed me (and made me queasy doing it)

UNRULY FIGURES: Twenty Tales of Rebels, Rulebreakers, and Revolutionaries You've (Probably) Never Heard Of
VALORIE CASTELLANOS CLARK
Princeton Architectural Press
$24.95 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A fascinating look at the lives of twenty rebels and rule-breakers throughout history and what made their contributions to society—in science, politics, art, and more—transformative. By the author and host of the popular Unruly Figures Substack newsletter and podcast.

Unruly Figures gives you access to the lives and often untold stories of twenty of history's most fascinating individuals. Of all the rebels and revolutionaries who have acted around the world, these are often overlooked. Whether they are a bit familiar or entirely new to you, each of these historical figures provides a vivid example of what it means to live life on one's own terms and have a lasting influence on society.

In the first collection of its kind, spotlighting a young historian's fresh view on unheralded rebels, these characters' true stories are brought to life through enthralling narratives of their feats and an original illustration of each. Even those whose names are recognizable—like Jonas Salk—have moments of rebellion that are largely left out of their histories. The diverse cast of unruly figures profiled includes:

Kandake Amanirenas, queen of the Kingdom of Kush (modern-day Sudan), who led an army against the invading Romans

Manuela Sáenz, revolutionary from Ecuador and collaborator and lover of Simón Bolívar

Henry Dunant, Swiss humanitarian and founder of the Red Cross

Elaine Sturtevant, known as Sturtevant, a misunderstood American artist who took appropriation and pop art to new heights

Dive into this collection of hidden history tales—those of scientists, artists, revolutionaries, activists, heirs to thrones, and so many more—and you are guaranteed to be inspired by how they lived on their own unconventional terms.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: This is my idea of a gift to give the young giftee of any description! This is how you do it, and don't wait to start. The world needs troublemakers now more than ever.

Here's a sample few pages, all about someone who did something I definitely never learned about in History class:

Excuse me, what?! Defeated AUGUSTUS?! This was not mentioned in any book I've read about Rome!

The entire collection does not, of course, have quite the same impact on me as the unsettling realization of History I've consumed for *mumble*ty-five years being upended. That is, however, not the source of the missing half-star. I'm afraid I'm being really petty and first-world spoiled here: I hate, with a violent passion, whatever Pantone™-pink shade that is they've used throughout the book. It looks like thrown-up shrimp cocktail.

The information, the design, all the rest...the portraits on the chapter opens, the typeface, the bloody dingbats are all peachy-keen by me. That urpsome shade of my least-favorite color cost this excellent book replete with role models I hope you'll shove at every young person you can find a half-star.

I accept your opprobrium in advance, but decline to reconsider my stance.

Don't let this in any way dissuade, or even delay, you from ordering one to arrive in time to go under the Yule tree.