I See Myself

Look in a mirror. Who do you see?
Your very own self, that's who!

Now look in a shiny doorknob or in a puddle. Can you see yourself in them?

How about in the pages of this book?

You might not see yourself, but you will feel yourself getting smarter as you begin to understand how and why you can see yourself. Renowned science author Vicki Cobb illuminates the scientific principles of light and reflection in a way that even the youngest kids can understand. Follow this book with a young child who loves to play, and see the light in a whole new way.

Discover science, and the world will never look the same.

Fun hands-on activities and irresistible illustrations by Julia Gorton makethis book a perfect excuse to learn about science...just for the fun of it!

Look in a mirror. Who do you see?
Your very own self, that's who!

Now look in a shiny doorknob or in a puddle. Can you see yourself in them?

How about in the pages of this book?

You might not see yourself, but you will feel yourself getting smarter as you begin to understand how and why you can see yourself. Renowned science author Vicki Cobb illuminates the scientific principles of light and reflection in a way that even the youngest kids can understand. Follow this book with a young child who loves to play, and see the light in a whole new way.

Discover science, and the world will never look the same.

Fun hands-on activities and irresistible illustrations by Julia Gorton makethis book a perfect excuse to learn about science...just for the fun of it!

The Five Owls

These two entries in the Vicki Cobb Science Play series carry prefatory notes to the adult that could seem off-putting on a first encounter of Vicki Cobb. Read with a mirror, a flashlight and a ball? Have ready a number of containers and a lock of hair. Be near a sink! But, the design of the notes themselves immediately alert the newcomer to the vivacity and frolic that readers first found in Cobb's Science Experiments You Can Eat (HaperCollins, 1994) and have loved about her kind of science ever since. The note in I See Myself uses an uneven, bouncy yellow font that forms a cone of illumination cast from a flashlight. In Julia Gorton's hands, the stylized art articulates the sharp lines, brisk colors, and defined geometry that recall Colorforms, a cultural reference that points assertively to the books' call to the imagination. The bold patterns of the endpapers establish the book's visually "retro" attitude. In turn, that attitude infuses the subject and substance of these lucid, involving books that return to the familiar to imagine it, to discover it anew. Not only do they invite readers "to do the activities, without rushing, as they come up," but also they ground the reader with the recognizable and familiar. Both I See Myself and I Get Wet show a child character interacting with her/his domestic environment. Respectively, the girl observes and manipulates her surroundings as she learns about the reflective properties of light, as does the boy when he learns about the cohesion of water. Just as water magically climbs a strip of paper towel, so do these books perform magic in making awesome science discoverable by the hands and minds of young children. This review was written toaddress I See Myself and I Get Wet. 2002, HarperCollins, Mercier

Vicki Cobb is a pro at explaining the cohesive and adhesive properties of water. but she can never seem to remember that plants like water too! She finally had to decorate her home with artificial plants to keep from killing the live ones.

Ever since Science Experiments You Can Eat, Vicki Cobb has been delighting children, parents, and teachers with the fun of making science discoveries. Now, with the new Science Play series, she sets her sights on the youngest children. who are natural scientists and are always experimenting. Vicki Cobb and her husband divide their time between their homes in White Plains, New York. and Manchester, Vermont.