Customer Reviews

Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Things: How to Make a Boomerang with a Business Card, Convert a Pencil into a Microphone, Make Animated Origami, Turn a TV ... Create Alternative Energy Science Projects

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

 

 

As someone who's never been too adept at science or really enjoyed it all that much, I got my first taste of sincere, scientific satisfaction when I swallowed up Sneakiest Uses. These little projects are so simple, and they work! Now I find I'm curious about the inner-workings of all kinds of things, and I'm just hoping my boyfriend doesn't catch me taking apart the microwave.

This review is for all three books in this series. The first note is they are clearly written for the 13 year old and under crowd. For them, it should stimulate the creative scientific gene in them, and open their imaginations to harmless scientific experimentation. So if there is a young burgeonoing, tinkering youngster in your life, these books could be the spark to spur them into some educational fun.

My husband got the first book a while back for himself, but wasn't disappointed when he found it was a better book for our kids, so I got this one just to top out my last order for free shipping. I'm glad I did.
It's as good as the first one, with a lot of simple and non-intimidating projects for the beginning maker, and a lot of them are done with things you can find around the house easily, or ask your friends for.
Like the first book, a lot of the projects have room for improvement, which I think is a great thing, it inspires people to think a little more, to mess around a bit, and see what they can come up with, and feel like they really did something themselves. My 13 yo daughter likes it a lot, and we've planned on trying some of the projects together.

Simply put, this book is meant to put first graders to sleep. The projects are simple, impractical, and boring. How do you create a "sneaky" mini-boomerang out of cardboard? Cut a "V" out of the cardboard and there you go! Plainly uninformative. How do you create a robot? 4 ice cube trays, 12 Pringles containers, and an electric clock. That's not science!

I read MAKE magazine and I suppose I was looking for something along those lines when I ordered this book. Based on the title, I ordered the book as a gift for a kid, but never gave it. It was just a disappointment. Just because you put "sneaky" in front of a word, like oragami or jacket, does not make it so.

This is the third in the "Sneaky" series. Being the third in a series there are two ways to go. One way is to write whole new content thus adding to a series. Or the tack this author takes, repeat most of what is covered in the first two editions with minor updating on most of the projects.

The biggest update to this book came in the material at the end of the book on making a "Spy Jacket." This project was introduced in Sneaker Uses. It is elaborated on in this volume with several additions and updates to the first suggestions. It should be noted that if you are going to the air port, TSA will probably want to do enhanced screening if you are wearing or place this item in the x-ray machine to be scanned.

Never the less, it offers some fun things to do with 5 to 10 year olds.

Don't waist your money on Sneaky or Sneakier. Sneakiest has all the content from the first two versions.

I bought all three of these books and have read them all. They are very interesting and a great idea for a rainy day. If you buy one you should buy them all. These are some of the most entertaining set of books I have ever read. I highly recommend them!

Teenage son loves this kind of stuff and this book was no exception. He said lots of this was already available online or in class, but likes having it all in one place that he can read away from webaccess/class

Fast shipping, well packed, fun for all ages..ordered for a gift for a friend, 19 yo that requested and he said he thought it was an ok read.

I ordered all three of these books for my oldest grandson. He and his friends have been having the best time with them. I may be banished from the kingdom for ordering them.

These projects are fun ways to demonstrate certain interesting
principles. Some of the scientific background presented is not
exactly correct, maybe it's an attempt to make things sound
simple but it seems a bit too far to go to me if that's the case.
More complete and less misleading explanations would have improved this
book for me.