ANGULAR MOMENTUM ON HANUKKAH!

A kippah-wearing tot celebrates Hanukkah and learns the science behind spinning dreidels.

A White-presenting child with dark brown hair puts toy candles in a menorah and spins a dreidel with a young friend with medium brown skin and light brown hair. The simple text and illustrations go on to explain torque, angular momentum, and friction to elucidate how a dreidel spins upright before eventually falling over. The companion title, Electrical Engineering on Christmas! follows a similar formula. A baby with light brown skin and wavy, brown hair learns how a Christmas tree lights up via electricity, how an atom carries an electrical charge, where electricity can be found naturally, how a circuit is formed, and how people make electricity. A few holiday tidbits are shared in both offerings, as each kid guest stars in the companion title, with the welcome reminder that not everyone celebrates Christmas. Chan’s art, like others in the Baby Loves Science series, does an admirable job of illustrating the science and looking inviting and playful in bright jewel tones. While the concepts are clearly explained and will work well for a preschool and early-elementary audience, many of the abstract ideas, particularly atomic theory and friction, may be a bit much for the putative baby audience.

Babies will enjoy turning the holiday-festooned pages, but will they get the science?