Why Is Milk White?: & 200 Other Curious Chemistry Questions

Gr 5–8—This book was created by an adult science writer and an 11-year-old with an interest in science. Coelho compiled a list of questions and Field provided the answers. The questions are loosely grouped into subject headings: "People and Animals," "Plants," "Household Chemistry," "Health and Safety," "Things That Catch Fire or Go Bang," "Things That Stink," etc. The book begins with a short introduction on how to read structural formulas. The questions range from quite basic to complicated and cover a broad range of topics, from "How does a Van de Graaff generator work?" to "Why does snow melt?" The answers range in length from a paragraph to two pages, and the writing is dry and uneven. A few black-and-white photographs, simple illustrations of chemical structures, and 12 experiments are included. These activities range from making the familiar dancing raisins (making raisins "dance" in a carbonated beverage) to making a butane balloon that involves freezing butane and then filling a balloon with it and observing it change from a liquid to a gas. "Smoking Hands" involves mixing small amounts of household ammonia and muriatic acid. Many of the experiments require adult supervision. While this book includes a lot of interesting facts, it may be a challenge for students to access them due to its somewhat arbitrary arrangement.—Maren Ostergard, King County Library System, Issaquah, WA