Electricity at Work (Science at Work)

Rebecca Felix lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she writes and edits with her funny, big-eared dog Phoebe by her side. She has written more than 50 books for kids about animals, caves, outer space, fairy tales, ghosts, and more. Learning new facts is her favorite part of her job!

K-Gr 2—Geared toward young readers, this series attempts to simplify science concepts with an emphasis on how they apply to daily life. Electricity, temperature, and light will be relatively familiar concepts for the audience while mass, magnetism, and the elements may be new. The page layouts feature one to three sentences per page and a bright photo. The text provides brief facts, some of which elucidate the topic while others are supplementary. For instance, that elements "are the simplest forms of something" is helpful, while the fact that Dmitri Mendeleyev sorted them into a table is probably not useful information for this age group. Other examples of scientists who appear include Marie Curie, Benjamin Franklin, and Isaac Newton. There are a few oversimplifications, such as the statement that magnetism is "found in some metals." VERDICT Overall these are accurate, if very basic introductions that may require teacher or parent guidance.