Magic and Mayhem

I was browsing another HS mom’s Library Thing list a few weeks ago and discovered these 3 books.  They were on her 5 star list– books her family owned that she’d buy more copies of if the house burned down.  I like that rating!  We have some books like that! 

I ordered them and we got them last week.  All 3 are huge hits.  Here’s a brief description if it sounds like something that would add to your curriculum…

“Physics: Why Matter Matters”
Dan Green; Paperback; $8.95

This snazzy little book makes physics cool!  There’s short, succinct information presented in a fun way with lots of great illustrations.  All of us have found ourselves picking it up and randomly flipping through it for fun.

“The Periodic Table”
Adrian Dingle; Paperback; $8.95

From the same series, this clever little book presents each of the elements from the periodic table as a sort of anime cartoon character.  It gives basic information in a really fun way, with lots of interesting tidbits.  Very well done!

“The American Revolution (Storyteller’s History)”
Steve Sheinkin; Paperback; $10.95

Daddy and Victoria have both been reading this off and on in the van over the past couple of days, and both of them love it.  Daryl told me “I finally know the rest of the story about who Nathan Hale was.  I always knew his quote (I regret that I have but one life to give for my country) but I never knew anything else” so even he is learning from it.  I started reading it at bedtime with Anna last night and it is really fantastic.  Anna is not a fan of history in any normal schooly way (she doesn’t even like Story of the World, which involves short chapters and coloring pages) but she was really getting into reading this one with me.  We are halfway through chapter one and I’ve already learned tons too!  LOL  We found out about the stamp act, the Boston massacre, the French and Indian (or 7 year) war and lots more.  There are little cartoons that accompany the text and it’s written in a rather funny tone while still getting the points across.  The author also doesn’t make everything black and white.  For the first time, I’m seeing early American history told without the sugar-coating and whitewashing, in a way where it seems real and relateable.  For instance, we see both sides of what happened in the Boston massacre and we meet John Hancock and Sam Adams as real men — and also meet British soldiers and the stamp tax collectors as real men (one named Oliver, anyway, who wakes up to find out that there’s a life sized version of him hanging from a tree and then a crowd of angry colonists bring it to his house, chop off its head and set it on fire, which makes Oliver decide he’d rather not be a stamp tax collector).  The book tells each bit very briefly but well enough that you understand the gist of it and maybe even want to go find out more.  There are parts that are sad, funny, interesting, you name it.  I’m going to look for more books in the series because I’m really a fan of this one.