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MATTER by Andi Diehn

MATTER

Physical Science for Kids

by Andi Diehn ; illustrated by Shululu

Pub Date: March 1st, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61930-642-4
Publisher: Nomad Press

A first introduction to what matter is—and isn’t.

Setting off on a potentially confusing tangent at the outset, Diehn opens with a discourse on how we use the word “matter” in common speech—as in “What’s the matter?” or “That doesn’t matter.” Following a perfunctory segue she then launches into her actual subject with a simple but not simplistic definition (“Matter is anything that takes up space and can be weighed”). She continues with easy-to-follow explanations of how matter (even air) can be weighed, how it comes in the states of solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, and finally how light is not matter but something else. Companion volumes on Energy, Forces, and Waves offer overviews that are likewise lucid, albeit similarly muddied by strained and, in the end, irrelevant word usages. All four surveys include questions and simple activities for readers. Shululu illustrates all four with a cast of wide-eyed, cherry-nosed figures of varying skin colors and their floppy-eared dog in active poses and, usually, outdoor settings.

Confusing topical drift muddles this quick but creditable dip into Newtonian physics.

(Informational picture book. 6-8)