Author

Robert Winston

Title

It’s Elementary – How Chemistry Rocks Our World!

Publisher

DK Publishing, 2007

Description

Review: First, this is a great book. Well-conceived, well-written, well-illustrated. But that’s an adult’s viewpoint. When asked to describe it, our nine-year old said it was “Pretty awesome!” It covers the topic from several angles. For example, it offers a very thorough history of chemistry as a field of human inquiry, going back to early mankind, through the Greeks, alchemists, Mendeleyev, etc. up to the modern era. Colorful and interesting to read. Most importantly, it helps the reader understand how civilization came to understand this science. I think this is very useful in helping the young reader see chemistry as something to be figured out — not something that arrives on a platter, fully-formed and never changing. There is thorough treatment given to the Periodic Table and different classes of elements, to chemical reactions, and so on. Basically, it is a very good book to get a child in this age range interested, informed, and motivated. And it will help them to understand many other fields that have a chemical connection, like biology, ecology, physics, and so on.