Horrible Science: Chemical Chaos product reviews

I am giving this book a complete score of ten...for a few reasons. Firstly It is the first time I have read it, and it quite appealed to me, yes, even this approaching 40 quickly old lady had a good ole chuckle whilst reading. But not only I, it also really appealed to my husband and our 12 and thirteen year old boys. Now we often come across books that appeal to us all, but still wont score a 10, this one has because the laughs, chatter and conversations that were produced from my kids while reading...just made my year!

The thing is, not everyone likes science right? I know I definitely did not when I was at school, and I know that my boys struggle with it now at school, but reading this book has given us all a whole new appreciation of science...seriously why do teachers not incorporate some of this stuff in to their every day curriculum. In doing this they will keep the kids engaged and interested, and can in turn teach them the science they are supposed to know according to the education minister, possibly even teaching them what they need to know, without them even knowing they are being taught lol

Anyway it is a very enlightening book, a great read, full of lots of interesting information, and yes even I learnt a thing two or three, or maybe even four. Some things made my stomach turn a little bit, and some even made my kids go omg is that even true...I love moments like that! So yes definitely a 10 from us, well worth a read if you can get your hands on a copy. Not for the faint hearted though, you do need a sense of humour for these kinds of books.

If only books like this were around when I was younger. Perhaps they were and I didn't see them. I think I would have been quite the little book worm! Getting the right fit for a child with regards to reading matter is vital in order to create a life long lover of books and information. This one would have hit it on the head for me as a child (in fact I enjoyed it as an adult!).

Horrible Science - Chemical Chaos is a lovely (or horrible!) mix of science facts, humour and interesting reading. I read some of it to my four year old and his interest was captured for a while with the gross and silly bits of the book, even though the actual science facts were mainly over his head. Kids love facts and they love facts that are disgusting or strange even more!

Linking chemistry to the science of cooking keeps it real and interesting for kids. As an adult, I found that I was able to revisit some of the information that was in the far corner of my memory banks from my high school science classes. I think that this book would give a level of interest to students about the science of chemistry. It would also be useful for a teacher to build on with all the standard curriculum information. Getting that level of interest in place would make the written formulas etc so much more interesting to learn.

It is great that there are recipes for things such as toffee and play dough in the book. It means that children from a young age could have some fun with the information in the book. Discussions could then take place about change of state of the various ingredients when they are mixed with other ones and/or when heat is applied. This could also change the way a parent chats to their children when they are cooking together. I think that I will now catch myself talking to my children about change of state, temperatures etc. I will also be more aware of getting the children to develop a hypothesis about what they think will happen when they mix things together and then to talk about the actual results after the experience.

There are 208 pages in the book and a child would be proud to sit down and say he or she had read that many pages. The fact that the font is rather big would assist a child to get through the book at a reasonable rate and accomplish the challenge of reading a nice thick book! I was a kid with eyesight issues who found the smaller font tricky to concentrate on and the size of font in this book seems like it would have worked quite well for me.

The black and white illustrations in the book are goofy and simple. They relate well to the information around them and they provide a comical aspect to the information. I love the character with the big eyes who keeps popping up throughout the book!

I think that it is evident from my review that I like this book and I look forward to reading more in the series with my children (and for myself as well!)