Helaine Becker, illus. by Jenn Playford. Orca, $9.95 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-4598-0683-2
Eleven-year-old Darren Dirkowitz—aka Dirk Daring, Secret Agent—is very serious about his spycraft. Becker's (Zoobots) story takes the form of Darren's top-secret journal, which is annotated with doodles and sarcastic notes from his best friend,...
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Helaine Becker, illus. by Willow Dawson. Kids Can, $15.95 (80p) ISBN 978-1-55453-746-4
“You cannot live without the ocean. Your blood, sweat and tears are all versions of seawater we carry within us so we can survive on land,” writes Becker in a book that features hands-on experiments involving ocean life. Areas of focus include...
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Helaine Becker, illus. by Kathy Boake. Owlkids (PGW, dist.), $17.95 (40p) ISBN 978-1-77147-105-3
Showing that even animals can be foodies, Becker reveals actual recipes served to animals in world zoos, including “Flamingo Chick Formula,” which contains egg yolks, shrimp, and oily fish, and “Presto Pesto Sauce—Koala Style,” made from eucalyptus...
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Helaine Becker, illus. by Dave Whamond. Kids Can, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-55453-715-0
A pint-size superhero and a villain do battle through an amusement park in this alphabetical exploration of comparatives and superlatives. Both opponents suffer slapstick pratfalls as they race around the park: the hero gets covered in eggs, stuffed
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Helaine Becker, illus. by Dow Phumiruk. Holt, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-250-13752-4
In Becker’s biography of the NASA mathematician, readers first meet Johnson as a child with boundless curiosity and a remarkable aptitude for mathematics. Due to segregation, Johnson’s family moved to a town with a black high school so that she...
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Helaine Becker, illus. by Dow Phumiruk. Holt/Ottaviano, $19.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-250-24195-5
Three girls in contemporary clothing peer, dismayed, at founding U.S. documents, seeing firsthand how protection against sex-based discrimination was lacking until Title IX: 1972 civil rights legislation, today known largely for its contribution to...
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Helaine Becker, illus. by John Bindon. Kids Can, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-77138-811-5
“Imagine, deep in the jungle... a swift-moving millipede almost twice your size slithers toward you, snapping its slavering jaws.” B-movie superlatives and natural history museum–diorama aesthetics set the tone for this information-rich exploration...
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Helaine Becker, illus. by Aura Lewis. Little, Brown/Ottaviano, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-316-31641-5
This whirlwind biography of Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) highlights how her difficult early years served in the development of the fundamentals behind her later work. Opening with Roosevelt’s dramatic rescue from the sinking SS Britannic as a...
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Helaine Becker, illus. by Sandra Dumais. Kids Can, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5253-0418-7
With this personable biography, Becker and Dumais shine a spotlight on Canadian paleontologist Wendy Sloboda (b. 1970), who found her first fossil at age 12. Centering on Sloboda’s most significant discoveries and her “rare eye for the unusual,” the
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