Tag Archive | Arctic

BIG DIGS: Amazing Underground Constructions, by Kiko Sanchez (kids nonfiction picturebook)

Jun25
Book cover of Big Digs: Amazing Underground Constructions, by Kiko Sanchez, translated by Marc Correa shows the White House at top, with tunnels, elevators, and several rooms in the earth beneath it.

Secret rooms,
tunnels, aqueducts –
deep below the surface!

The “Tunnel of Contents” shows a wide range of underground projects, each commanding a double-page spread in this oversized book.

From the ancient Gadara Aqueduct carrying water underground for 60 miles in 2nd century Jordan to 3D-printed habitats in caverns under the surface of Mars in the future, each project has a specific purpose.

Both the 3rd century Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Mexico and Quinta da Regaieira in early 1900s Portugal held secret ceremonial sites far below the surface.

The Seoul Subway system is the world’s largest, carrying 7 million people yearly on its 200 miles of underground tracks.

The Delaware Aqueduct carries water to New York City, while the Eastern Discharge Tunnel carries flooding rainwater away from Mexico City.

Some diagrams are so large that you need to turn the book sideways to see them, like the White House Bunker, and the Drummen Spiral where the road to a mountaintop spirals inside the mountain, leaving its trees and animals undisturbed.

By the way – did you know that the Chunnel carrying trains under the English Channel is actually 3 tunnels?

Look for this fascinating array of meticulously hand-drawn scenes with lots of facts and history at your local library https://search.worldcat.org/libraries or independent bookstore https://bookshop.org/ .

How far underground have you gone?
**kmm

Book info: Big Digs: Amazing Underground Constructions / Kiko Sanchez; translated by Marc Correa. Helvetiq, 2026. [author/illustrator https://www.tormentalibros.com/en/illustrators/kiko-sanchez] [publisher site https://helvetiq.com/us/big-digs] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

Ice caps vanished, father not returned – her only hope against TERRA ELECTRICA: THE GUARDIANS OF THE NORTH! by Antonia Maxwell (MG fiction)

Jun18
Book cover of Terra Electrica: The Guardians of the North, by Antonia Maxwell. Atop a hill, a girl in summer clothes shoots magenta-colored lightning from her hands. Standing with her are a howling wolf and gigantic polar bear roaring at the Northern Lights above them. Two ravens fly to them through the magenta night sky, forest and high mountains in the distance.

Only she and her father survived the electrical sickness that killed everyone in their far-north village, where snow never ever comes now, Arctic animals long gone, polar ice caps melted away.

When he doesn’t return from weeks of hunting, 12-year-old Mani decides to search for her father, urged onward by the Polar animal spirits she meets after donning her late mother’s ancestral wooden mask.

The science man Leo is still alive, but his eyes show the Terra Electrica sickness. Somehow, Mani’s touch when holding a flashlight cures him!

Leo says they must travel north to The Ark where the other scientists are, to see if her father is there and figure out why Mani isn’t affected by the Terra Electrica. Maybe they can save the rest of humankind…

Their journey is long and dangerous, dragging their sled of supplies across muck that used to be iced-over, making a raft from driftwood and plastic bottles to cross a bay, encountering people who don’t trust Ark scientists or anyone coming from the Terra Electrica-affected zones.

Whenever she can, Mani goes back into the world of the mask, to hear wisdom from Ooshaka the polar bear and Crow and Eagle and Wolf, to seek her ancestors in the old land of ice, to listen for her mother’s spirit…

Oh! This large group also heading for The Ark says they have things to trade… things like weapons!?

Is her father really at The Ark?
What caused the Terra Electrica?
Can Ooshaka’s advice help Mani survive?

Mani’s perils due to extreme climate change remind us of the power we have in our present time to prevent future disaster.

How far north have you gone?
**kmm

Book info: Terra Electrica: The Guardians of the North / Antonia Maxwell. Neem Tree Press, 2024. [author site https://www.antoniamaxwell.com/about] [publisher site https://neemtreepress.com/book/terra-electrica-the-guardians-of-the-north/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

T is TASTING LIGHT: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Rewire Your Perceptions, edited by A.R. Capetta & Wade Roush (YA book review) #A2Z

Apr23
vague human figure in spacesuit looking upward at title and author names on book cover of Tasting Light: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Rewire Your Perceptions,edited by A R Capetta and Wade Roush

What’s in our future?
Who gets to decide?
Can we change who gets to decide?

She hears a dead friend singing in the park – who selected that voice-mod to replace their own, and why?

Meeting him among the tethers holding together her small space city was electrifying – until she sensed one disintegrating.

Teens on different space habitats exchanging messages and dreams – via junk DNA in bio-sample data packets.

A robot far in the woods, observing the tiniest creatures in its soil – “I am very tired of humans desperately needing me to be something to them” (pg. 119).

Gender assumptions, body image, white entitlement, traditional knowledges, emotions and more…

Go to ten futures with William Alexander, K. Ancrum, Elizabeth Bear, A.R. Capetta, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Nasugraq Rainey Hopson, A.S. King, E.C. Myers, Junauda Petrus-Nasah, and graphic novelist Wendy Xu.

The authors were challenged to write YA fiction using classic hard Sci-Fi with “no magic, no faster-than-light travel, just real-world physics,” and they succeeded brilliantly with these stories “about young people discovering themselves and how their bravery can change the world in small or big ways” (pg x).

Check it out at your local library or independent bookstore – hardcover, eBook, and paperback.

What do you see in your future?
**kmm

Book info: Tasting Light: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Rewire Your Perceptions / edited by A.R. Capetta & Wade Roush. MITeen Press /Candlewick, hardcover 2022, paperback 2023. [A.R. site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.