Why? The Best Ever Question and Answer Book About Nature, Science and the World Around You
Why? The Best Ever Question and Answer Book About Nature, Science and the World Around You
Ow! How does my cut stop bleeding?
It’s a sticky story. As soon as you cut yourself, parts of your blood called platelets start to gather. They stick to each other and to the edges of your cut, forming a thin cover over it. If the cut is big, the platelets may need extra help to stop the bleeding. Along comes fibrin to the rescue. Fibrin is another special part of your blood. It weaves a criss-crossing tangle of long, sticky strands over the cut. Then the strands dry out to make a scab. The scab acts like a bandage, and lets new skin grow underneath. So whatever you do, don’t pick at it!
But whatever you do, do pick up this book. You and the kids you share it with will enjoy the opportunity to learn some interesting tidbits about a myriad of topics.
It is hard to review a book that has already sold “Over 150,000 copies” and won several awards: Canadian Toy Testing Council, Top 25 Great Books, 2002, Science Books & Films, Best Books, 2002, Canadian Children's Book Centre, Best Books for Kids and Teens Selection, 2011, Smart Book Awards.
I’m tempted to just say “Buy it” but then I know you would say, “Why?”
Reasons why:
1. Great questions that kids really ask.
2. Great answers written so that kids and adults will understand.
3. Fantastic illustrations. Full disclosure, I’ve been a fan of Scot Ritchie for years.
4. A range of topics that are just right for dipping into randomly, or for exploring a theme.
5. Fun to read and share.
Author Catherine Ripley and illustrator Scot Ritchie know how to make a nonfiction book appealing with both verbal and visual humour.
The questions are divided into six themes with 11 or 12 questions in each: “Bathtime Questions”, “Supermarket Questions”, “Nighttime Questions”, “Outdoor Questions”, “Kitchen Questions”, and “Farm Animal Questions”. Each question and answer is clearly displayed on a colourfully illustrated double-page spread. The text is always in a text box or text bubble with a white background. I have a bias against text that is difficult to read because it is printed over a coloured background so kudos to the publisher for using a white background for text. Each theme ends with a collection of additional “bits” of information, such as “Bath Bits”.
Stop! Before you fill that glass to rinse your teeth, think about the fact that a dinosaur may have drunk that very same water millions of years ago. The water on Earth is used over and over and over…
That should be enough reasons to encourage you to buy this book, either for your students or as a gift for a parent or grandparent who may need some help with a few “Why?” questions.
Suzanne Pierson is a retired teacher-librarian and former instructor of Librarianship courses at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.