Lights, Lenses and Lasers

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7 Clearly but simply, Berger in troduces light and lenses, illuminated with a scattering of quick experiments and demonstrations that let readers participate and illustrated with useful black-and-white photos and diagrams. The portion on light and lenses is wel come as so many of the old standard texts about light are no longer avail able. The section on laser mechanics and applications is merely run of the mill, containing (understandably) only one home experiment and (less accept ably) unnecessary generalizations and hyperbole. Careless readers could draw the conclusion that all lasers produce light of equal high intensity. Even the most careful readers will not be able to find the dividing line between what has been done once or twice under careful ly controlled conditions and what can be done reliably every day. This does not make this worse than other books on lasers, just not up to the promise of Berger's sections on light and lenses. A Look Inside Lasers (Raintree, 1981) by Jim Johnson is a slim, colorful volume that spends more time on laser mechan ics and less on applications. Both La sers, the Miracle Light (Morrow, 1979) by Larry Kettlekamp and Laser Light (McGraw, 1978) by Herman Schneider supply more detail. Margaret Chat ham, formerly at Smithtown Lib . , N.Y.