The KidHaven Science Library - Lasers

Lasers are used today in everything from CD players to satellites. Lasers, explores the scientific concepts behind these super tools in easy-to-understand language while exploring the history and development of these miraculous inventions.

Grade 3-5-These series titles provide overviews of their respective subjects. The appealing layout includes large fonts, many color photographs, and simple diagrams. Lasers covers the history of the device from Alexander Graham Bell, who came up with the concept, and Albert Einstein, who refined the theory, to the six men now credited with creating the first laser beam and, finally, to the use of lasers in modern medicine and technology. Nardo introduces atoms as the building blocks of matter and goes on to explain unstable atoms and radioactivity. The book ends with a discussion of nuclear power plants and other modern uses for atoms, such as PET scans, CAT scans, and atomic timekeepers. Lasers is a good companion to Nina Morgan's Lasers (RSVP, 1997). Atoms provides a simpler introduction than that found in Roy A. Gallant's The Ever-Changing Atom (Benchmark, 1999).
Maren Ostergard, Bellevue Regional Library, WA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reviewed with Don Nardo's Germs.

Gr. 4-5. These two titles in the KidHaven Science Library series offer wide-angle overviews of their topics. Nardo defines germs in the broadest possible way, including not only viruses and bacteria but also protozoans, microscopic fungi, and even algae; he emphasizes that, while many of these engender diseases, most are harmless or even beneficial to humans. Boekhoff and Kallen discuss lasers from Einstein's description of their basic principles to today's pervasive devices, tallying their uses in medicine, recreation, military endeavors, and heavy and fine industry. The color photos in the volumes are more decorative than enlightening, but both books close with lists of recent resources, and Lasers cites a (commercial) Web site, too. The level of detail in Germs makes it a good follow-up to Melvin Berger's Germs Make Me Sick! (1995), and Lasers is an acceptable alternative or companion for several titles currently in print. John Peters
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