Pros: Fun, entertaining and accurate look at practical science.
Cons: None at all!
The Bottom Line: An exceptional book that explores science, the universe and the human body. Guaranteed to entertain and educate, this is a must have for any child interested in science.
Freak369's Full Review: David M. Schwartz - Q Is for Quark: A Science Alph...
When my son asked for this book for his birthday I was a little puzzled. From the title I assumed it was a ‘kids book’ far below his reading potential. But I picked it up anyway a few days ago since it was one of the non-Lego items he asked for. Q Is For QuarkA Science Alphabet Book was nothing what I expected it to be, which may explain why I read it from cover to cover in about four hours.
Quark Preface
The word quark has been used in our household for some time now – my youngest son would walk around saying And the duck goes quark, quark instead of quack, quack. He picked up the word from my oldest when he started watching KPBS educational programming and soon it became an everyday word. Much like the word Smurf, it’s been morphed to fit the moment. “Stop quarking around”, “Don’t be a quark head” and my personal favorite “If you don’t eat your food, no quark for you”. I guess you had to be there to really get the joke :]
A Is For Atom
Q Is For QuarkA Science Alphabet Book is a highly enriched book that covers a tremendous amount of science, applied skills, experiments and cause and effect. One of the first things I noticed about the presentation is that it is fun. Some books are so plain and boring that you lose interest. The text portion is broke up with illustrations, facts, experiments and reinforcing tools to embed knowledge.
While it is called an alphabet book, it is so much more than that. It ties in fact about creators of inventions, when things were patented, famous and not so famous scientists, the solar system, the history of science and weights and measures.
E Is For Element
Along the way, you are entertained by outer space creatures, monsters and mythical creatures. Exploro is from the planet Scientifica and helps to define the element chart, the atomic weight, name and atomic number as well as how some of them were discovered.. One of the many interesting facts I learned from this book – an element is a substance that cannot be broken down into a smaller form. I guess that is pretty basic knowledge but it never really occurred to me.
I Is For Immune System
This book also takes on topics about the human body, the immune system, basic reproduction [human, animal and plant life] and the conversion of food to energy. One topic I found extremely interesting is how they explain germ transmission and how you catch a cold. This section also talks about some of the important and vital human organs, their functions and what happens to them when you become ill. The illustrations are what really make this interesting – they aren’t the standard boring molecule branches or DNA strands – but rather a cartoon like approach to explaining the different topics.
U Is for Universe
One of the best things about this book is the way it approaches various topics. Explaining the universe is a big task, but this book compares it to making chocolate chip cookies. Something that everyone can relate to – especially kids. The author takes a very entertaining approach to teaching the basics then taking those and expanding upon them. This type of presentation makes learning fun as well as helping a child [or adult] retain the information. Exploring the universe with this book will help to unlock a whole new respect for the origin of the planets, how new stars and plants are created as well as a few of the theories of how our universe came to be.
Y Is For Y Chromosome
Q Is For QuarkA Science Alphabet Book does an exceptional job of talking about the human body. While some books give the basics about organ functions and skeletal design, this book breaks it down to the start of life. Explaining the functions of the X and Y chromosomes, how the sex of a child is chosen and the process of how the chromosomes are bonded are all covered in this book – and in a very basic, non-complex manner.
Experiments
As I mentioned, this book is full or experiments and tricks your child can do, however, I do suggest that you stress that they ask for permission first so you know what’s going on. Surface tension is something that my boys love to play with. They fill up cups with water and see who can get the most in the cup without overflowing. In this book you are asked to float two toothpicks on the surface of the water then take a third toothpick and dip in dishwashing liquid. Take the third toothpick and place it between the two others and see what happens [it moves them away from the third as it breaks the surface tension]. A little messy yes, but that’s what science is all about.
Making sugar crystals is also covered – and I realized why my sugar crystals never grew. I never boiled the water and sugar before adding them to the jar. Since this involves using the stove, this is an experiment that must be done with adult supervision. I almost wanted to do one of these for myself but decided to wait until my sons birthday so we could each make one and see who could grow the biggest one.
Admitting The Mistakes
If you are planning on checking out this book, make sure you get the revised edition. The publisher made a revision to page 33 [It’s A String Thing]. There is a piece of paper glued over the portion that was wrong and a note from the publisher. The piece of paper is only glued at the top portion and they suggest that you cut out [around the dotted line] the revision and paste or tape it over the error. This is the only error the publisher reports so before you invest in this book, make sure that there is a revision addendum attached.
Glossary
At the end of the book you are given a four-page glossary of the terms used in the book. Four pages might not seem like a lot for this type of book, however there are 121 entries and they are the prefect push for a child if he or she gets stuck in a section. To be honest, I knew about half of the definitions of these words when I started reading. Some of the harder words I encountered – Axon, ionic bond, meiosis, mitosis and quadruped. Thanks to the heart definitions, the mysteries of science have been explained [well, some of them at least]. This is also great as a supplemental dictionary. The entries are clearly marked and dense with information and detail.
Index
Who would have ever thought an index section could be so educational? Much like the glossary section, this offers valuable points of reference when you are in search of information. It is not limited to just the letters of the alphabet that the book covers and help me answer more than a few quandaries I had about the wonders of the spleen and the dance of the honey bee.
Who Would Love This
Any child that has a passion about science would fall in love with this book. Aside from the practical learning, there are hands experiments that help children [and adults] learn about the world around them. Almost all of the experiments can be done with household items but there are a few that I really suggest are done with extreme parental supervision.
The Bottom Line
Real science is something that you learn with a hands-on approach. This book is the perfect vehicle for those that gravitate [no pun] towards science since it offers so much information in a fun and entertaining format. But the learning doesn’t stop there. At the end of each letter section, there are ‘jumpers’ that lead to other words for that letter. All of the ‘jumpers’ can be found in the glossary or in the index section.
Every child has his or her own personal learning curve. While some seem to excel in math, other are leaps and bounds ahead in science or geography. This would be an excellent book to read to smaller children because it is never too early to lay the groundwork [that’s just my opinion] when education is concerned. Do yourself a favor and check this book out, if it isn’t something that your child needs at present moment – it will surely come in handy in the future.
The Stats
Name: Q Is For QuarkA Science Alphabet Book Published By: Tricycle Press
Pages: 64
ISBN: 1-58246-021-3
Author David M. Schwartz
Illustrations: Kim Doner
Price: $15.95
Website www.tenspeed.com
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