Discovery Science

Gr 4–8—With all the buzz about Common Core State Standards, this set seems like it would fill a gap. But, its cost would more effectively be spent on stand-alone nonfiction titles that more thoroughly address the topics it covers. The updated series includes the following topics—animals and humans (two volumes each), Earth, matter and energy, plants, space, and technology. The full-color set is browsable and attractive and contains some beneficial material—such as experiments, activities, and QR codes that launch videos which provide additional information. The content is an appropriate launching pad or first step in research, but it is far too cursory to provide much more than that. Also, while the organization of the individual books mostly makes sense, searching within the work won't come intuitively to its intended audience. For example, the Charles Darwin entry is found in the animals volume, and topics like fruit and fire are found in the material on humans. The images are mostly stock and don't add a great deal to the explanations. This set is recommended for small school libraries that have Internet access for deeper research and a budget that won't allow purchasing other science encyclopedias or an extensive nonfiction collection, but it will be of limited use in other settings.—Sharon Verbeten, Brown County Library, Green Bay, WI