COLA FOUNTAINS AND SPATTERING PAINT BOMBS

Name: COLA FOUNTAINS AND SPATTERING PAINT BOMBS
Author: Jesse Goosens
ISBN: 978-1-935954-52-1

by Jesse Goosens ; illustrated by Linde Faas ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2016

Goosens admits that all the activities in the book have been described and/or done on the Internet and includes a list of...

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This collection of science tricks and experiments will have kids exploding things, launching them, or making them turn colors.

The activities included here feature such popular (and overdone) experiments as diet Coke and Mentos, baking soda–and-vinegar volcanoes, ooblek, elephant toothpaste, growing crystals, borax slime, and dissolving an egg’s shell. Mixed in with these are a few relatively dangerous ones: heating, cooling, and cracking glass marbles; making a teeter-totter of a candle burning at both ends; microwaving a grape to make a fireball; and making rockets of tea bags and matches. (There is a note about adult supervision, and there are also symbols delineating each experiment’s difficulty, messiness, explosiveness, etc.) Many directions are sorely in need of illustrated steps—words alone are not enough, and Faas’ illustrations are purely humorous. Several spreads are not arranged in linear fashion, so the “What You Need” boxes (which already tend to get lost on the page) may be after the “What Do You Do?” or the “Why Does It Work?” may come first, ruining surprise. Many of these explanations are rudimentary, incomplete, and/or unsatisfying: “The vinegar and baking soda combine to form carbon dioxide, which makes everything fizz and foam.” Readers will also regret the sprinkling of typos.

Goosens admits that all the activities in the book have been described and/or done on the Internet and includes a list of websites; young experimenters would do better to turn there first. (Nonfiction. 6-12)

Pub Date: April 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-935954-52-1

Page Count: 104

Publisher: Lemniscaat USA

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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PRICELESS FACTS ABOUT MONEY

From the Mellody on Money series

by Mellody Hobson ; illustrated by Caitlin Stevens ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024

A variety show brimming with esoteric and practical information.

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Two youngsters embark on a journey peppered with history, trivia, and skits while teaching money lessons.

Meet Mellody and John, the young stars of this currency showcase. Their very first dialogue offers a taste of the intriguing information to come, from the ancient Mayans’ use of cacao beans as payment to the origins of the piggy bank. The book offers a chronologically and geographically broad timeline of the history of money, encompassing the past 3.9 billion years (starting with meteorite crashes that scattered metals—“the very first bank deposit”) and referencing practices across five continents. Readers will find themselves eagerly sharing the facts gleaned here, including the centuries-old origins of terms and expressions still used today. Mellody and John’s fun banter crucially reflects their experiences with money, such as their families’ differing attitudes toward allowances. Both are savers as well as givers, sharing stories about giving to charity. In one especially entertaining section, a cat and a bunny converse in money-related catchphrases that are separately defined at the bottom of each page. Stevens’ watercolors are appropriately realistic and appealing, whether depicting Mellody’s pretend bank or Elizabeth II’s butler ironing a 10-pound note. Messages about money’s use as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself, ensure that readers will think about their own purposes for their savings. Mellody and John are Black.

A variety show brimming with esoteric and practical information. (index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9781536224719

Page Count: 80

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)