Let’s Time Travel: Zooming into the Science of Space-Time with General Relativity

Let’s Time Travel: Zooming into the Science of Space-Time with General Relativity is another book in the “Everyday Science Academy” series of science books for young children in which Dr. Chris (Ferrie) answers science questions from the young Red Kangaroo. In each book Ferrie takes a complex and sophisticated science topic and presents it in a simple way for a young audience and the adults reading the book to their children. Ferrie has a way of approaching any topic with a straightforward clarity despite the somewhat impenetrable science involved. Dr. Chris seems to believe in giving a complete answer to any question.

Each book in the series starts with Red Kangaroo in an ordinary setting wondering about something in the environment. She then goes to Dr. Chris to find an answer. This allows the rest of the book to proceed in a question and answer format that is familiar to the series. In Let’s Time Travel, Red Kangaroo feels sick after eating too much junk food and wonders if she can go back in time to eat vegetables instead. This question leads to a lesson in general relativity starting with the four dimensions, including time, and quickly moving on to space-time.

The concept of these books is good, better than good. Science is interesting, fun and important. The more children are exposed to science the better. Seeing it in bits and pieces early can create a deep interest in learning more about some or all of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. In Let’s Time Travel, the answers, although scientifically true, are a bit too much for the question that started it all. Perhaps the question and answer format will work for some, or even many, readers. For me, the two just do not seem to go together and work appropriately. Either the question is answered too deeply, bringing in too much information, or the approach would work better for me if it were not predicated on a naïve question.

Chris Ferrie is a physicist, mathematician and researcher who works in quantum physics and engineering. He is also a father and has said in interviews that he started the series to have the kind of science books he wanted to read to his kids. It is never too early to start introducing physics concepts and he does have a talent for clarity.

Ferrie also did the illustrations and drew himself as Dr. Chris. Using large areas of soft, contrasting colours keeps the pictures appealing while the foreground items shown aid in understanding the concepts given in the text. The pictures are a lot like those usually used in a classroom for older children.

As with other books in the series, there is a glossary at the back of Let’s Time Travel and a short quiz with the answers on a later page. Finally, there are two easy experiments that can be done with readily available materials. These experiments also include useful descriptions of what you can expect to see when you do the experiment.