Tastes Good!, Vol. 4

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

Each book in the "Let's start! Science" series about the senses starts the same way—there is an introduction to our five senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch). Hewitt then focuses on the particular sense noted in the title. Her colorful examples feature kids and they are ones that kids can easily relate to. These examples manage to impart lessons painlessly such as a good taste usually encourages you to eat something and a bad taste may mean danger—for example, food has gone bad. Every few pages there are activities to reinforce the learning such as an easy experiment kids can perform like determining what flavor a food is. The tongue has taste buds that can detect whether something is bitter, sweet and salty or sour. We learn a lot just by taste and there is an activity to demonstrate what types of flavors make food taste better or worse. Questions throughout the text encourage thinking and discussion. Smell and taste work together and you can determine this when you have a cold—food is not as enticing because you cannot smell it. The book closes with another series of activities, a short glossary, index and a full-page note for teachers and parents with advice about other activities that can teach children even more about smell. A really good choice for home or classroom and as noted on the cover "an exciting way to learn about your senses." Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot