(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Catherine Leary. A lively tone, second-person voice, and lots of hands-on experiments and activities engage readers in understanding the human brain and nervous system, including reflexes, optical function, and creativity. Each double-page spread includes factual information, easy-to-follow directions for activities, small illustrations, sidebars, pronunciation guides, and plenty of white space. Ind.

Reviewer: Gail Hedges

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Catherine Leary & Catherine Leary. The author writes in a conversational style, addressing the reader directly ("your dog") on topics related to dog physiology and psychology. The book includes safety tips for working with dogs, and how to get usable results from dogs in the suggested science activities. Illustrations include cartoon drawings and numerous, well-labeled diagrams, and the format uses sidebars and boxed pronunciation guides nearby the difficult words. Ind.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Catherine Leary. Most of the activities in this collection touch on such concepts or skills as symmetry, volume, estimation, and measurement, but a few, including a card trick and a surface tension experiment, lack a strong math tie-in and seem out of place. Cartoon-style illustrations help to clarify the directions for activities, most of which require common household and classroom items such as rulers, newspaper, and string.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Catherine Leary. DiSpezio provides a useful and interesting collection of experiments demonstrating inertia, buoyancy, center of gravity examples, molecular forces (surface tension, etc.), and air pressure. Safety-conscious cautions are carefully detailed, and simple, cartoonlike sketches accompany each experiment. Occasional ambiguities in the instructions or explanations do not present major problems. Ind.

Reviewer: Harry Clement Stubbs