Fun and enlightenment for young experimenters working alone, with partners, or in groups.
An array of simple demonstrations designed to give budding eco-activists an understanding of how energy is stored, transferred, used responsibly, and recycled.
Developed by the National Energy Education Development Project and demonstrated here by a cast of dozens of young children—roughly evenly split between girls and boys but the substantial majority presenting as white—the low-cost projects range from measuring shadows and charting temperature changes to constructing a solar cooker in a pizza box, creating an inventory of home-appliance energy needs, and competitively “mining” chocolate chips from cookies, then trying to reconstruct the cookies. Each entry comes with a materials list, clear, step-by-step directions with color photos, safety and potential-mess alerts, and difficulty ratings that range from “No Sweat!” (meaning doable by one person) to “Grab a Crew Member!”—for group activities, it’s “All Hands On Deck!” Each concludes with a nontechnical explanation of the physical principles involved, and many feature suggestions for further tinkering with materials or variables.
Fun and enlightenment for young experimenters working alone, with partners, or in groups. (glossary, index, websites) (Nonfiction. 6-10)Pub Date: July 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63159-250-8
Page Count: 147
Publisher: Quarto
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Confusing topical drift muddles this quick but creditable dip into Newtonian physics.
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)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61930-642-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nomad Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
The theme’s worthy, but the informational payload is disappointingly light.
A first, sweeping look at the visible universe and some of what’s in it.
That “some” ranges from galaxies, nebulas, and constellations to space junk. Each element is given a narrative voice (as in: “I am your Solar System, a huge family in space”) to supply introductions and brief descriptions of select parts or features. “Space” has the final word, but instead of directing readers’ attention outward as the rest do, it delivers only a vague and rather deflating platitude: “And you, my young scientist, are very special.” Despite featuring a cast of child astronauts and scientists that includes several with Asian features or dark skin as well as white characters, flattened perspectives and stylized renditions of, for instance, a young dreamer in a fishbowl helmet and the asteroid belt as an unrealistically dense band of gravel give the illustrations a mildly antique, mid–last-century look. Though the International Space Station and the Ariane 5 launch vehicle take narrative turns of their own, overall the focus is less on technology, the future of space exploration, or even measures of specific detail (Mars “has mountains, valleys, and windblown red dust”) than on fostering a general appreciation for the cosmos as “a wondrous place of spinning galaxies, exploding stars, and planets teeming with the unknown.”
The theme’s worthy, but the informational payload is disappointingly light. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-3-89955-795-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Gestalten
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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