Energy

Children's Literature - Children's Literature

Have you ever thought much about energy? Everything you do can be related to energy somehow. Climbing a flight of stairs takes as much energy as it does to light a bulb for up to 10 seconds. A plant either uses or loses ninety percent of the energy it receives from the sun before the energy can be passed along within the food chain. I was even surprised to find that if it wasn't for wind, most of the earth would be unlivable due to excessive heat or cold. The wind uses its energy to transfer warm and cold air to and from the poles. Anyone can learn something from this text. Each chapter comes complete with a "Try This" segment for hands-on learning. Useful diagrams and illustrations accompany each section, and there is a glossary. Snedden has done a great job with this book and the "Smart Sciences" series. If you buy one, you will want them all. 1999, Heinemann Library, Ages 10 up, $21.36. Reviewer: Scott S. Floyd

School Library Journal

Gr 4-5-In these two colorfully illustrated surveys, Riley develops the theme of cycles and progressions in nature. Earth looks at orbits, rotations, seasons, time zones, and the sun's life; Energy introduces the many ways potential energy becomes kinetic, and then heat. One large, captioned photo or painting per page leaves plenty of room for the texts, which are divvied into quick, paragraph-sized passages, each with its own header. Special terms are printed in boldface and defined in an appended glossary. Readers who want to know more will find a brief, current book list at the end of each volume. Of the two, Earth is the more successful, as its more limited scope allows for more detailed discussion. So much territory is covered in Energy, including electricity, magnetism, technological developments, nuclear energy, the Industrial Revolution, genetic engineering, the greenhouse effect and other ecological issues, that the book is likely to leave readers no wiser about, for instance, how wave and other generators work, or why some natural resources are considered renewable and others are not. Still, these titles may shed light from a slightly different angle on subjects covered more thoroughly elsewhere.-John Peters, New York Public Library