We all should know how important our water supply is. It’s not something that we should take for granted, ask anyone who doesn’t have water or has had to go without their water for an extended amount of time and they will tell you, water is precious. I really enjoyed how the author makes us look at water and how valuable it really is.
“It nourished us inside our mother’s body.
As it nourished us her on Mother Earth.
Water is sacred, she said. (Nokomis)”
I have to tell you that I went into this book blindly. I knew that it was a popular book and that it was up for some awards but I didn’t know its subject matter. For me, going into this book blindly was ideal as I had to guess what the author was referring to as she spoke of the black snake tainting the waters. Something has to be done to stop the black snake but what? She stepped forward, hoping to rally her people together to stop the black snake, but can they? They march as many, to also carry the torch for those without a voice, to fight those who wear blinders.
You definitely have to read the 2- page section at the back of the book, as I thought these notes and information gave the book more depth and force. The illustrations were fabulous with striking colors and images. Definitely a book that you have to read more than once. 5 stars.
I am in awe! This book is breathtaking! As a nature lover, I am fascinated about the world around me and as I read about Apis, I was glued to this book. As Apis made her made into the world, her journey was just beginning. Each page of this book, brought new experiences and I was exhausted just reading about everything that she did. Only days old and she was working non-stop.
I learned a great deal about the Short Life of a bee and my mood quickly changed as the I got the end of the book. I liked how the author presented the information with facts and comments in a story-like narration. The illustrations are bright, engaging, and bigger than life. At the back of the book is a diagram of a honeybee with its different parts highlighted and there’s also a section about helping honeybees, facts about honeybees, online and books about honeybees. I highly recommend this book as I can’t stop thinking about this book!
This book got me excited for doing science experiments at home, I just need my granddaughter and we would be off! I liked how this book is set up with 4 different sections: a food section, a water and outside section, and then, experiments for around the home. By looking at the instructions, they’re not limited to those specific areas but I think it helps that they’re grouped. There are at least 6 experiments in each section and most of the items that you’ll need, are items that you should have somewhere close by.
Each experiment is laid out with numbered step-by-step instructions with illustrations for each step. But, that is not all, no…. there is an explanation on why this experiment works, which is the important thing. It’s fun to make experiments but it’s even better, if they work. There’s also a difficulty level meter and an estimated time (in minutes) on how long each experiment should take. I love how there are tidbits of information included in each experiment because it’s also fun to learn something neat and interesting while you’re being a scientist, as you never know when you might need to know this information later.
Some experiments are ones that we have done before (like the erupting volcano, sticky slime, dancing snake (although ours was a bit different)), there are some that look very interesting. Sugar lollipops, kaleidoscope, rocket car, stalactites, orbs, and a few others. There’s a glossary and an index at the back of the book to help navigate within the book. And yes, I also thought a few of the experiments, I wouldn’t even attempt. I just had no desire to do them.
From personal experience, I have to say that there are a few experiments that are geared for the younger crowd. These experiments would be ones that can be accomplished quickly, results can be seen rapidly, and they can be explained without much difficulty. That being said, there are some that look time-consuming (not necessarily difficult), the results might take a few days to accomplish, and the reasoning behind why they work, might be more involved. The majority of the experiments, I feel fall in the middle. DK produced another great book that will provide hours of fun and education and will spark the minds of our future generation. 4.5 stars
I liked how straight-forward this book was. It wasn’t busy, filled with unnecessary things or words, it stated the facts and that was it. This book counts down from ten to one and then on the final page, the author reminds us that, yes dinosaurs are extinct.
Each number is given a two-page spread and on those two pages you get a specific dinosaur, the number (1-10) and you get the number written our in words and you an adjective for that dinosaur . So, for 9: it reads 9 nine lazing deinosuchus and includes 9 of them on the page in their various shades of color. What? I don’t know what a deinosuchus is? But, I bet a few children do. There were included in this book, dinosaurs that I knew too. Now, I like dinosaurs but some of these dinosaurs have names that I haven’t heard before. At the back of the book, the author has included how to pronounce some of the dinosaur names, which does help.
It was an okay book but I think the pronunciations would have helped me more, if they were on the page with the dinosaur. I also didn’t care for the illustrations as they didn’t match the language of the book. I did like the added adjectives in the book and again, the simplicity of the book , I enjoyed. 3.5 stars
This book is a gem! Packed with 25 different experiments, I was excited to thumb my way through this beauty. I have to warn you up front, that I am not into science. I hated science as a child, as I didn’t understand any of it but now as an adult, I love experimenting and learning from it. This book fits right in with my needs.
If only as I child, I could have experimented with fun and interesting items instead of the beakers, test tubes and chemicals that we had to use, I think that I would have learned more and enjoyed science. In The Big Book of Experiments, the variety of experiments is great. Some of the experiments can be completed rather quickly and some can take some time while there are some which small children can complete with little assistance while others, you’ll need an adult or mature person watching over the whole experiment.
I liked that some of these ideas were ones that I had already completed and some were new to me. There was Dancing Raisins, Elephant’s Toothpaste, Moon Rocks, Unicorn Glue, Lava Lamp, Neon Brains, and Fake Tattoos, just to mention a few. I do like redoing experiments
Kate provides visual safety cues to each experiment. Whether that is a sink, goggles, gloves, a garbage can or adults, as these safety cues remind the reader to be safe when conducting the experiments. Along with the cues, each experiment has a small note about the experiment, a list of supplies, a messiness level, step-by-step directions with colorful illustrations, questions to ask yourself after you’re finished (science questions about what happened and what if questions) and then, the author explains to you the WHY, as to why the experiment worked. Now, that is some important stuff! This is the educational element of the book and important for you to read, you do want to become smarter, don’t you?
I liked that most of the supplies for these experiments were normal items that aren’t hard to find. Items like rubber bands, knife, dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, shaving cream, balloons, fishing line, etc. There are some that called for some more difficult items, like sodium alginate, calcium chloride, iron oxide powder, dry ice, and copper wire, for which you will have to do some planning to get these before having some fun. I I would have liked an idea where someone could locate some of these items, that would have been a big help. Some type of indexing at the back would have been great too. There is a Table of Content but I like indexes in books like these.
It’s a great colorful, fun book and I highly recommend it. If you’re homeschooling or trying to keep your child engaged, this is a great book to check out.
This book was different. I guess I expected more than what I got from this book.
I liked the color contrast between the inside of the spaceship and space. The inside of the spaceship is a light gray and space is bright and colorful. The idea behind the story is great. I liked the ideas of being out in space, the idea of aliens or unknown beings in space, making friends with other beings, and taking pictures in space.
I wasn’t a fan of the drawings of space nor of the colors of the planets. They looked too cartoonish or like bouncy balls. I thought the depth of the story could have been deeper, or the author could have elaborated on a few of the items that he touched on. I also wasn’t a fan of all the wordless pages in the middle, as I thought there were a lot of them.
This was a children’s book about Randolph taking a spacewalk. Clearing the walk with Ground Control, Randolph must do a few things before taking his walk out in space. When Randolph finally makes his way outside the spaceship, what does he see? This spacewalk is one that Randolph will remember. When he makes his way back into the spaceship, Randolph asks Ground Control if he can take another walk tomorrow.
One Chapter 