The water cycle

Gr 2-4-Ball, host of the TV shows Design Squad and Design Squad Nation, portrays himself as a cartoon scientist eager to explore the wonders of the water cycle with a team of four curious kids. After meeting up at the Science Museum, Ball and his crew enter a special portal that shrinks them down so they can investigate all things water before the museum opens to the public. The inquisitive kids must each answer a question about the water cycle before the doors open in one hour. A digital clock in the upper left-hand corner lets readers know the time as it moves from nine to 10. Will the children be able to answer the questions in time? Students will rest easy as the kids succeed and return to the museum, a little wet but back to their original size. Each child has a unique personality, communicated through facial expressions and dialogue. The pencil drawings, with digitalized color, are bright, action-packed, and comical. Supplementing the main text, journal entry sidebars impart additional information. VERDICT Ms. Frizzle may be a long-standing staple, but this book makes for a good companion title to freshen up collections.-Sandra Welzenbach, Villarreal Elementary School, San Antonio © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This entry in the Magic School Bus read-alike series introduces a cartoon-illustrated version of real-life scientist Nate Ball and four children at a science museum. Shrinking as small as molecules, they travel through the water cycle (although the definition misrepresents the process). Speech-bubble dialogue accompanies the cursory facts, with pages from one child's journal reinforcing vocabulary concepts throughout. A relevant experiment is appended. Glos. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Ms. Frizzle and her magical bus have some competition.Ball, the host of PBS' Design Squad and Design Squad Nation, launches a new book series with this title. Nate himself, as a white, lab-coat-clad "daredevil scientist," leads his team of investigatorsAsian Wendy; white, glasses-wearing Felix; Braden, who is black and sports a sweater vest and bow tie; and Rosa, who has long, straight brown hair and light brown skin. The kids gather at the Science Museum on Saturday mornings an hour before opening, when all the doors turn into portals to other worlds. In order to return to the museum, the kids must answer the investigation questions on their exit tickets. In this outing, they shrink to the size of molecules, form a cloud, rain, flow from the river to the ocean, evaporate, form a snowflake, precipitate, and then soak down into the ground into an underground river. Along the way, readers are introduced to solid science vocabulary and concepts, most of which are explained in excerpts from Braden's journal. The pencil-and-digital paint illustrations will whet readers' appetites for their own adventures, though the depictions of molecules are unlikely to help kids understand them. Overall, it's visually less cluttered than the Magic School Bus books; the characters still speak in dialogue bubbles, but there aren't quite as many, and the flow of the conversation is easier to follow. A solid start to a new science series. (Informational picture book. 5-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.