Eat Your Science Homework

September 1, 2014

Gr 4-8-A creative work that gives readers an opportunity to experience scientific terms and processes with familiar objects and recipes. For instance, a salad dressing comprised of oil and vinegar makes for a fun lesson about the properties of matter, chemical reactions are demonstrated with invisible ink on sandwiches, and lasagna provides a way to observe sedimentary layers. Scientific terms are explained in each chapter, and recipes are given and reinforced with a glossary. Bright illustrations and clear instructions will appeal to younger readers, while older readers will find the concepts and vocabulary educational; the recipes will appeal to a wide range of ages. An accessible and engaging title that should please even reluctant readers.-Denise Moore, O'Gorman Junior High School, Sioux Falls, SD

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2014
Science concepts are appetizingly presented with relevant recipes.The math-teaching author of Eat Your Math Homework, also illustrated by Hernandez (2011), follows up with six edible demonstrations of scientific ideas from chemistry, forensic science, geology and astrophysics. The connection is sometimes straightforward (Sedimentary Pizza Lasagna does retain the layers of sedimentary rock) but sometimes not. Three Atomic Popcorn Balls will make a model water molecule, but what do you do with the other balls? You'd need more colors than the suggested two to make many other kinds of molecules. The fingerprints pressed into the edges of Loop, Whorl, and Arch Cookies will disappear in the cooking process. The science explanations aren't clear, either. A lengthy description of invisible ink mentions the chemical change involved, but it also covers the differences between acids and bases and both the chemical and the physical reactions demonstrated by Invisible Ink Snack Pockets. All this is relevant, perhaps, but confusing to children who have never encountered any of this before. An indentation in stretchy space is a theoretical explanation for the gravity of everything, not just black holes. The recipes have problems, too. The sausage should be precooked before being placed in the Black Hole Swallow-Up Muffins, and the recipe for sugar cookies calls for rolling out the dough without pre-chilling it, making it a recipe for a mess.To be used, with caution, by adult and child together. (Nonfiction. 7-12)

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