Customer Reviews

The Periodic Table: Elements with Style!

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Periodic Table, Elements with Style! Is a charming little book that serves as a nice chemistry introduction. The book is most appropriate for kids working at about a 4th grade level or higher. It's aimed at upper elementary to middle school kids, but would also make a handy reference guide or review for high schoolers who are not overly familiar with the periodic table.

This book is about 100 pages long. Each element has a first person description offered in a "my space" style narrative. Strontium, for instance says, " I'm Scottish, named after the town of Strontian where I was discovered. You may see me as a shy, run-of-the-mill, silver-colored metal, but I've got a few surprises up my sleeve..." Magnesium brags, " I'm sparky, and I always cause a reaction!" Barium's page declares, "...I'm a real rocker and more reactive than calcium." These sometimes silly descriptions do provide useful information about the various elements, and make the task of memorization easier.

Accompanying cartoon type illustrations give a visual presence to each element. Gold resembles a ghost from the old Pac-Man game, standing high on a pedestal. Lead appears as a warrior dressed in Spartan style. My personal favorite is sulfur, who is quite absurdly shown as a cute little girl dressed in yellow! My seven year old daughter found the simply rendered drawings to be highly amusing and they helped her form an identity for each element.

The book is organized into sections about hydrogen, the alkali metals, the alkaline earth metals, the transition elements, the boron elements, the carbon elements, the nitrogen elements, the oxygen elements, the halogen elements, the noble gases, the lanthanides and actinides, and the transactinides. A handy glossary in the back explains terminology such as gamma ray, isotope, and catalyst. The bottom of each element's page contains facts about date of discovery or earliest known use, as well as density, melting point, and boiling point.

It's cute, it's clever, and very enticing to the youngster interested in science. A great resource!

The best thing about this book is that it makes a subject that MOST adults (let alone children) consider to be completely dry, extremely interesting!!

As I read through this book, I was struck by how much it reads like some of my kids Pokemon books - the drawings of the elements have a Japanese anime look to them, and they are grouped in very Pokemon-like groups, "The Alkali Earth Metals" (once thought to be harmless and boring, until they were released from Oxygen, at which point they became unruly), "The Transition Elements" (a motley crew of rednecks), etcetera.

And each individual element has a catchy description, a cool drawing, and the same 10 basic bullet points facts for each one (symbol, color, classification, etc..) This presentation makes the information very accessible to most children. It would actually make excellent information for trading or flash cards.

In fact, I think the author could make a great educational game based on this book. Kids could easily learn and retain some of the fascinating facts about different elements if it was presented in the context of a game..

What a fresh and original look at the periodic table! The book is compact in size, and gives a brief synopsis, including most the data from the periodic table such as the symbol, atomic number and weight, its standard state, color and classification.

The book is organized by periodic table group, the graphic at the top of the page shows each element's location on the table. The elements introduce themselves with a sense of humor and share facts about their appearance and uses.

Zinc, symbol Zn, says, "Here to protect and serve, I'm more useful than you'd zinc! I'm a very sociable element that's always happy to mix in with other metals."

The illustrations that represent each element make the book. Silicon is a computer chip/centipede while Aluminum is a stylized airplane. They evoke Japanese anime characters and the poster of the periodic table bound into the back of the book remids me of the Pokemon poster that used to hang in my entling's bedroom. I found the drawings utterly compelling.

The book invites casual reading as well as cover to cover absorption.

This is a great book. I give it 4 stars because I wish it covered more elements, not just the most common/popular/easy ones.

This a good supplement book for talking about individual elements. The periodic table that comes with is a ton of fun also, and, I hope, will help the students learn the elements and their location on the periodic table.

When I handed the book out, I had to give the students several minutes to explore the book, because I couldnt' get them to stay on only one page. The colorfulness and the creativeness are very appealing, even for the teacher!

This book is an excellent resource for teachers. The elements are presented in a simple way that elementary students can understand - giving each one a personality. My students love to hear about "the element of the day" and it really helps them understand the science concepts.

Who said chemistry had to be boring? (I'm sure no one has ever said this, but someone sure forgot to tell my science teacher!) Basher and Adrian Dingle have come together to create an entertaining and valuable resource for students with their version of the 111 elements.

Whether you're studying chemistry in school right now or not, you're sure to get a kick out of the full-color illustrations inside the pages of this book. Plus, you might actually learn something, as each element is fully described in detail: the name, its symbol, its atomic number, its atomic weight, its color, its standard state, and its classification.

The elements are also broken down into eleven separate categories, including the Alkali Metals, the Transition Elements, the Boron Elements, the Carbon Elements, the Nitrogen Elements, the Oxygen Elements, the Halogen Elements, the Noble Gases, the Lanthanides and Actinides, and the Transactinides.

This is the perfect, easy-to-use reference guide for people of all ages, and the included poster can easily be used for an educating, stylish decorating tool. Who knew elements could be so interesting??

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

This book describes over 100 elements of the periodic table from a first-person point of view, making the elements seem like they are people. Each element has a two-page spread, with one page containing information about the element and the other page showing a cartoon picture of the element. The information listed includes the element's symbol, atomic number, color, and date of discovery. Each element then describes its characteristics through a first-person narrative. A glossary and index are available at the end, and a poster of the periodic table with the cartoon pictures is included.

This book is so cute and clever! It makes a topic which can be boring to students into something fun. Having the information written in first person helps to draw the reader into the book because it is more like a story. It includes some information on how the elements are grouped together, but mostly concentrates on describing the individual elements. The poster is an added bonus. My students loved this book! If you teach chemistry, this should definitely be part of your collection.

I use these books with my middle school science students. They absolutely love them. The kids get excited about learning the various elements and arrangement of the periodic table because of the cartoon illustrations and interesting descriptions. Highly recommended both for teachers and for parents looking for a home study book on the elements. Several of my students went home and bought copies for themselves because they liked the book so much. My only complaint would be that some elements do not get their own page. They only show up on the group pages. Overall though, I give the book a five for making a subject that could be boring very fun.

I gave this to my six year old granddaughter for her birthday last August. She has loved this book, and now we can't find it on line. She and her parents read one element each night and now that they have finished, she has memorized all the elements and the types of elements they are. Her daddy has taught her to diagram the atoms based on their atomic numbers, and she now wants the periodic table as wallpaper next to her bed. It is a great book for kids who want to know more than most kids about the world around them.

My five year old seized this at first sight and has enjoyed having it read to him. The art is more creative than Pokemon and appears to have been drawn by a human, not a computer. Factual, but not dry and organized well. What a boon in a topic that is rather unrepresented in the grade school sciences.

The artist is bringing out a book with a physicist some time this year.