Mike Goldsmith

I loved this book so much, that I am considering using it in the future! The illustrations tie in perfectly with the main topic of the book and do a great job of explaining different concepts. For example, on page 15 the illustrations portrayed show why the ground shakes when an earthquake occurs. Without using the captions given (which is great that the author/illustrator decided to add features as such), one can understand what is happening and answer the question: Why does the ground show more shake?
I think that this book would be perfect to be used during a guided reading because teachers can observe students as they read and use different features in the book to try and create meaning. Furthermore, teachers could use this to also do some "word work" practice with key, tricky, or new difficult words that the students may encounter while reading. The book can be a great tool for encouraging new readers to interact with the reading and indulge in the book because the book contains multiple flaps with questions that students can flip over and find the answers. For example, on the fourth page of the book the following questions are listed: 1. What is a planet?, 2. Does Earth really spin?, 3. Why does it get dark at night? If the student flips the flap, the answers will be shown. The author and illustrator allow students to explore a little and learn different things that they may not have known while motivating them to interact with the book as well. show less

If books like this existed when I was in primary and middle school, I think my relationship with numbers would have been a lot different.I was so entertained with the material of the book and even tried doing the activities. the vivid colors and the small cartoons give so much personality to this book. It has a little bit of everything and I loved seeing how our brain works the optical illusions and the mazes.

I gave this book a 5/5. This book has a bunch of diagrams on the page, this would be a great book to show how students should observe other aspects than just the text. I also really like how the book has questions inside it. This is important because the questions the book has might be the same questions students are thinking. Then, on the back of the flap it answers those questions. Children love asking about earth questions and I believe this book does a great job answering some common show more ones in an interesting and fun way. show less

Simple book for children , aimed at high-schoolers, but enjoyable to adults too. I learned the Egyptian symbol for a large number.