Anna Raff

This book is so awesome. It explains basically everything about light, from how it travels, to how mirrors and images work, how we get colors, and waves that we can't see. The first time I looked through this, I thought it might be a little long for kids to stay engaged with, but I read it at the request of some of my preschoolers (5 year olds) and I read the entire thing, while others joined in, and read it all the way through again for those who missed some of the beginning. They LOVED it! show more In my opinion, light is one of the coolest and easiest things that we can experiment with children and there are plenty of small activities in this book that would be so quick to demonstrate. I might use some of those examples, like how you look on each side of a spoon, or why straws look bent in water, and ask students to come up with possible explanations and then read this book for further exploration/explanation. show less

This book is fully loaded with almost everything you could want to know about light and all of it’s different forms. I did give this book a lower score though because it is so wordy and has a lot of information condensed into it. If I were going to use this book in class I would consider breaking it up between days or even units because of how dense it is.

Another great explanation of a science concept in kid friendly language and step by step instructions for an experiment to test out concepts discussed in the book. The book discusses elements of light such as how it moves and bounces off of different surfaces as well as color and how it is reflected or absorbed depending on the surface. They even get into the different waves that are part of the electromagnetic system. The glossary is informative and I like that you can stop at any page show more depending on the concepts you want to cover or introduce. The book is also full of great illustrations! show less

reviewed