What Is the World Made Of?: All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Paul Meisel (Illustrator), Paul Meisel (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Did you ever walk through a wall? Drink a glass of blocks? Have you ever played with a lemonade doll, or put on milk for socks? This latest addition to the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series introduces the youngest readers to an important science concept: the differences between solids, liquids, and gases. Any child who wants to know why he can't walk through a wall will enjoy Kathleen Zoehfeld's simple text and Paul Meisel's playful illustrations.

Children's Literature

Solids, liquids and gases are the simple building blocks of science offered in this nonfiction trade book. With familiar scenarios and everyday items, children learn about the concepts of solids, liquids and gases. "If your sister spills milk on the table" shows how liquids spread out. A simple experiment, using a borrowed bottle of perfume and an empty room, demonstrates how gases spread through the air. When a demonstration demands more complex activities (such as using a hot stove to boil water) children are warned that they'll need an adult's help. In addition to showing children how to demonstrate several of these properties for themselves, this book also asks them to extend their thinking by imagining what the world would be like if heat and cold turned everything into solids, liquids or gases. "Can you imagine a world where your toys would melt when it gets too hot?" Familiar scenarios and items make the concepts understandable. Also, the predictable word patterns and pictures that are tied to the text aid comprehension for the youngest reader. The last page in the book offers several simple experiments that children can conduct with very little help from adults. Also included is a method of charting that introduces record keeping. This book is especially recommended for teachers who are looking for appropriate nonfiction books for primary-age children. Parents will find it interesting and useful as a supplementing to the science curriculum.

Horn Book

"Have you ever seen anyone walk through a wall? Did you ever drink a glass of blocks? Have you ever played with a lemonade doll, or put on milk for socks? Walls and blocks, dolls and socks. Milk and lemonade.... All of these things are made of matter." Zoehfeld and Meisel add competently to the venerable Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series as they comfortably explain the three states of matter to beginning readers. Solids, hard or soft, hold their shape. Shapeless liquids take on the shape of whatever they're in. Invisible gases spread out to fill any container they're in, too. Children are invited to make personal observations of water as it changes from one state to another, and the homey experi-ments are demonstrated by a cheerful cast of boys and girls, parents and animals. Meisel deftly mixes media to color his energetic line drawings, and conversation balloons add to the humor. A final page of simple ob-servation exercises rounds out the handy lesson in fundamental science that will be appreciated by teachers and enjoyed by children.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0064451631
  
• ISBN-13: 9780064451635
• Format: Paperback, 32pp
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books
• Pub. Date: September 1998
• Sales Rank: 15,875
• Age Range: 5 to 8
• Series: Let's-Read-and-Find-out Science Series