LIGHT

In the ``Investigate and Discover'' series, experiments covering the fundamental properties of light: reflection, refraction, diffraction, color, and the behavior of simple lenses. The experiments call for both simple everyday items and specialized materials (convex lenses, diffraction gratings) available from specialty suppliers (list included). Instructions are given for the construction of a homemade light box to provide the light sources used in several experiments; historical notes give some information on the scientists who made early discoveries and formulated the first theories of light. A very uneven offering from a veteran author (credited with over 30 books for young people), with too-few drawings that are not only clumsy and imprecise but don't always match the text- -which ranges from insights into everyday experiences with light to excessive terseness that fails to clarify, much less motivate. Dependence on the Socratic method is also excessive. The chapter on color unsuccessfully attempts to explain color addition and subtraction with b&w drawings; an eight-page color insert contains photos that are often irrelevent, perplexing, or badly captioned. This is touted as ``A Franklin Institute Science Museum Book,'' but the museum's participation was apparently limited to being a source of information. A book that would have been worth doing right. Index. (Nonfiction. 11+)