Energy Makes Things Happen (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2) - Hardcover

Bradley, Kimberly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060289082 ISBN 13: 9780060289089

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

Synopsis

Read and find out about energy in this colorfully illustrated nonfiction picture book.

Did you know that energy comes from the food you eat? From the sun and wind? From fuel and heat? You get energy every time you eat. You transfer energy to other things every time you play baseball.

In this book, you can find out all the ways you and everyone on earth need energy to make things happen.

This clear and appealing science book for early elementary age kids, both at home and in the classroom, is a Level 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explores more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades. The 100+ titles in this leading nonfiction series are:

• hands-on and visual
• acclaimed and trusted
• great for classrooms

Top 10 reasons to love LRFOs:

• Entertain and educate at the same time
• Have appealing, child-centered topics
• Developmentally appropriate for emerging readers
• Focused; answering questions instead of using survey approach
• Employ engaging picture book quality illustrations
• Use simple charts and graphics to improve visual literacy skills
• Feature hands-on activities to engage young scientists
• Meet national science education standards
• Written/illustrated by award-winning authors/illustrators & vetted by an expert in the field
• Over 130 titles in print, meeting a wide range of kids' scientific interests

Books in this series support the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

About this title

About the Authors

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is the author of Energy Makes Things Happen and Pop!, an Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children, in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series. She has a degree in chemistry from Smith College and lives with her husband and two children in Bristol, Tennessee.

Paul Meisel has illustrated many books for children, including Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?, Energy Makes Things Happen, and What Happens to Our Trash? in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series. He lives in Newtown, Connecticut.

From the Back Cover

Did you know that energy comes from the food you eat? From the sun and wind? From fuel and heat?

You get energy every time you eat. You transfer energy to other things every time you play baseball. In this book, you can find out all the ways you and everyone on earth need energy to make things happen.

Reviews

Grade 1-3-This worthy title uses familiar examples and a clear focus to introduce basic scientific concepts. An opening scene shows children playing ball, flying kites, and cooking and eating hot dogs, with a rock on a hill in the background. Bradley explains that inherent in the scenarios are different kinds of energy. She then tells how the kite uses the wind, the rock converts stored energy into moving energy, and so on, and discusses how the greatest source of power, the sun, makes food, fossil fuels, light, heat, and wind. The author intentionally makes this a very general introduction; not even moderately difficult words such as "potential" or "kinetic" are used. A simple experiment and a game are appended. While rolling a toy car into a stationary one and observing the result can be easily done, tracing energy back to the sun will probably need adult guidance. Meisel's color illustrations of cheerful multiethnic children match the level and tone of the text perfectly, make it more comprehensible, and add to the book's appeal. While educational theorists believe that children can't grasp abstractions until at least age seven, younger readers will gain some familiarity with the concept even if they don't really understand it. Larry White's Energy: Simple Experiments for Young Scientists (Millbrook, 1995) offers a more sophisticated and detailed introduction, along with many experiments, for older readers, but Bradley's title is a good first exposure to the subject.
Louise L. Sherman, formerly at Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr 1-3. This entry in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series explains the concept of energy and how it is used. The organization may be confusing: children don't find out until near the end of the book that most of our energy comes from the sun. But some kids will be intrigued by the way the book builds to this information and will keep reading to find out more. The book begins with cartoon-style illustrations showing people playing and working at different activities, all of which, of course, require energy. The text, which includes information about the fueling of both objects and people, goes on to explain that energy gives both heat and light, that all activities require energy, and that energy can be transferred from one thing to another. Appealing art and easily understandable explanations make this a good basis for teaching beginning science principles. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060289082
• ISBN 13: 9780060289089
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Meisel Paul
• Number of pages: 40