{"id":46483,"date":"2026-07-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=46483"},"modified":"2026-07-10T08:59:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:59:58","slug":"humans-of-new-york-star-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/humans-of-new-york-star-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Humans of New York \/ Star Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HUMANS OF NEW YORK – PHOTOS OF RANDOM STRANGERS IN NYC AND THEIR LIFE STORIES<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Humans of New York<\/em>
by Brandon Stanton
St. Martin\u2019s Press
2013, 304 pages, 7.4 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brendon Stanton started photographing random strangers in New York City in 2010. He treated each of them like a celebrity, portraying them in a classy portrait on the street. He then added a little bit of their life story in their own words. These mini-autobiographies were the secret sauce that transformed random snapshots of strangers into a remarkable series of portraits of real people that you could connect with. Brandon posted his photos-plus-bio on his blog, Humans of New York, which quickly went viral on social media until he had millions of followers. The 400 best of his portraits were fan-funded into this printed book. \u2013 Kevin Kelly<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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STAR STUFF: CARL SAGAN AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE COSMOS<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos<\/em>
by Stephanie Roth Sisson
Roaring Brook Press
2014, 40 pages, 8.8 x 11.4 x 0.4 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A popular Internet meme pairs a photograph of astrophysicist and humanitarian Carl Sagan with that of reality show star and shrill media figure Nicole \u201cSnooki\u201d Polizzi. The caption states, \u201cIf you don\u2019t know who this is\u2026 (referencing Sagan) \u2026but you know who this is\u2026 (Snooki) \u2026Congratulations! You\u2019re what\u2019s wrong with the world!\u201d Certainly a bit harsh and overstated, leading another Internet blogger to modify the last part of the meme thusly: \u201cThat\u2019s a real shame! Why not Google \u2018Carl Sagan\u2019 and learn all about him? Read his books, watch his shows and be inspired!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading is one sure path to inspiration, which prompted Stephanie Roth Sisson to write her children\u2019s biography of Carl Sagan. \u201cCarl Sagan was able to ignite imagination and wonder and pull science out of the antiseptic staleness that existed in my classroom,\u201d states Sisson on her website. \u201c[He] made it relevant to me and millions of people around the globe.\u201d Star Stuff<\/em> covers everything from its subject\u2019s Brooklyn boyhood and how his love for science began at the public library and the 1939 World\u2019s Fair, to his work with NASA, the release of his seminal PBS series Cosmos<\/em> and his role in founding the SETI Institute (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) to find life in the universe. The illustrations are playful and engaging, and the text is quite accessible. As a special education teacher, I shared the book with my class which led to their writing a paper about his life and work. The book has since become a student favorite and a staple of my regular curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents and teachers who want to get even more out of sharing this beautiful book with their kids might want to pair it with this video of the humble Dr. Sagan teaching a class of children at his elementary school alma mater here<\/a>. Truly, a reminder of what an inspired intellect and great soul the man was. \u2013 Lee Hollman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Books That Belong On Paper<\/strong> first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair.<\/em> Sign up here<\/a> to get the issues a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issue No. 126<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46483"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46502,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46483\/revisions\/46502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}