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Last book reviews of 2015
Jan. 3rd, 2016 01:46 pmCatching up.
#81: The Curious Kid's Science Book: 100+ Creative Hands-on Activities for Ages 4-8 by Asia Citro. 4.5. While my not-quite-3-year-old is a little too young to understand the principles behind most of these, this book should keep us busy for some time. (A number of the experiments should be good for entertainment value now and then can be repeated in a few years with greater understanding.) This isn't so much a step-by-step guide as a set of questions and vague suggestions designed to prompt budding mad scientists to come up with their own questions, hypotheses, and experimental setups. That is, this book tries less to teach scientific facts as to teach the scientific method, which is probably more fun and educational than one that simply tries to get the young elementary crowd to memorize chemical bonds or something. My only real quibble is that in an effort to hit the 100+ mark, they go seriously overboard on the baking soda experiments. They get really repetitive.
#82: Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep ed. by Paula Guran. 4. A number of the stories in this collection are stellar. The only real problem is that it turns out there aren't actually that many mermaid stories to be told--while almost all of these would come off as thoughtful and creative in a less homogeneous context, when read back-to-back, the archetypes get a little threadbare.
#83: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. 5. While the middle book in the trilogy dragged a little, this offers a rock solid conclusion. I read nearly the entire thing in one tense sitting. While it is not possible to completely resolve the questions of autonomy, interdependence, authority, and the nature of humanity that Leckie brought up in the first book, this takes them to a natural balance point that feels logical but not pat. It also treats its characters with a warmth that allows them to earn their triumphs, both large and small, without overdelivering an unrealistically happy ending.
#81: The Curious Kid's Science Book: 100+ Creative Hands-on Activities for Ages 4-8 by Asia Citro. 4.5. While my not-quite-3-year-old is a little too young to understand the principles behind most of these, this book should keep us busy for some time. (A number of the experiments should be good for entertainment value now and then can be repeated in a few years with greater understanding.) This isn't so much a step-by-step guide as a set of questions and vague suggestions designed to prompt budding mad scientists to come up with their own questions, hypotheses, and experimental setups. That is, this book tries less to teach scientific facts as to teach the scientific method, which is probably more fun and educational than one that simply tries to get the young elementary crowd to memorize chemical bonds or something. My only real quibble is that in an effort to hit the 100+ mark, they go seriously overboard on the baking soda experiments. They get really repetitive.
#82: Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep ed. by Paula Guran. 4. A number of the stories in this collection are stellar. The only real problem is that it turns out there aren't actually that many mermaid stories to be told--while almost all of these would come off as thoughtful and creative in a less homogeneous context, when read back-to-back, the archetypes get a little threadbare.
#83: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. 5. While the middle book in the trilogy dragged a little, this offers a rock solid conclusion. I read nearly the entire thing in one tense sitting. While it is not possible to completely resolve the questions of autonomy, interdependence, authority, and the nature of humanity that Leckie brought up in the first book, this takes them to a natural balance point that feels logical but not pat. It also treats its characters with a warmth that allows them to earn their triumphs, both large and small, without overdelivering an unrealistically happy ending.
