Why is Snot Green?: The Science Museum Question and Answer Book (Science Museum Q & a Book) (Paperback)

~ Glenn Murphy (Author)
Key Phrases: snot green, United States, Big Bang, New Zealand (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

“Is the Earth really getting hotter, and is that so bad?” “Why do we walk on two legs (instead of four)?” Conservation, evolution, technology, animal life, space travel, physics, and much more are discussed in this lively science book. The writer worked at the London Science Museum, and the chatty questions and answers read like an informal guided tour for kids, with text that is compelling, never intimidating, and sometimes deliberately outrageous. Starting with the book’s title, the open talk about yucky bodily functions will grab even reluctant readers (“Do rabbits fart? Why?” “What are scabs for, and is it OK to pick them?”). Children will have fun browsing the spacious pages and sharing what they read with adults, who can join in the explanations about complex stuff, including time travel and Einstein’s theory of relativity. Grades 3-6. --Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

“Students will find this a fun book to browse independently or share with friends. An excellent choice for reluctant readers in search of entertaining, informative nonfiction.” —School Library Journal

“Parents who slugged through science back in the day might want to take a peek, and science teachers confronting the lost, the confused, or the disengaged should welcome this as a lively back-up plan.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“This will be devoured by even the most reluctant readers or scientists.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Reluctant readers will find both format and subject appealing. Public libraries and media centers should acquire multiple copies, if possible, to meet certain demand.” —VOYA

“Children will have fun browsing the spacious pages and sharing what they read with adults, who can join in the explanations about complex stuff, including time travel and Einstein’s theory of relativity.” —Booklist

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books (April 6, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 0330448528
• ISBN-13: 978-0330448529
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #834,831 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Online reviews of Why Is Snot Green?, July 10, 2008

By	Glenn Murphy "BookMurph" (Raleigh, NC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Link to the sequel, How Loud Can You Burp?
How Loud Can You Burp? (Science Museum Q & a Book)

Review from CultureSquad.wordpress.com:

This book takes the funny sides of things; I find it difficult to imagine a humoristic science book, but this one is perfect. The book is split into two: the explainer and the reader. The explainer... um... explains everything, and the `reader' asks questions in the same way as the reader would. So the book is extremely informal.

There are five sections to the book: `Lost in Space', `The Angry Planet', `Animal Answers', `Being Human' and `Fantastic Futures'. They are all split into questions, such as `Why is Snot Green', and the reader is engaged into `asking' the questions. Most of the questions are really funny and both the explainer and reader could be comics.

Despite no colour, there are pictures and diagrams to help the reader through the book (the real one). So, I give this book a 9/10.

Review from thebookbag.co.uk

Go on. You don't know, do you? Why is snot green? I'll tell you. Snot is green because it contains a special bacteria-busting protein which itself contains a form of iron that reflects green light and absorbs all other colours. Wasabi, the Japanese sauce, contains the same protein. That's why it's green, too. Hold that thought. Dried snot - you know, the bogeys that you pick and stick on the wall to drive your mother mad - isn't green because once it leaves the body and the air begins to dry it out, the cells in the snot containing the proteins - phagocytes - die and the green colour disappears.

Do rabbits fart?

Well, almost. If, by fart, you mean 'release gas from the gut' then all animals with guts will, in fact, fart. Insects, fish, lizards, cats, dogs, mice, elephants... almost any creature you can think of. In fact, the only ones that don't fart are those that didn't evolve guts - like sponges, jellyfish and some types of worm.

This whole farting thing gets quite interesting, actually. Apparently, termites are the top farters on Earth. The combined farts of termites produce more methane - a greenhouse gas, in case you didn't know - than cars, planes and factories all put together. Cattle burps have a pretty shocking effect on global warming too.

These are just two of the almost two hundred questions answered in Why Is Snot Green? by the Science Museum's head of communications, Glenn Murphy. Thankfully, they're not all concerned with bodily functions and gruesomeness. They're neatly arranged into five sections - about space, about the planet, about animals, about humans and about the future. It covers many of the topics children will come across in Key Stage Two science, but it isn't geared to providing answers for the dreaded SATS tests; it's geared to providing interesting and inspirational context to the broad topics they're covering at school. It does that, and then some.

I found the sections about humans and animals most interesting - and I actually found a better section on lightning in this book than I found when searching the internet about it not so long ago. My older son (11 and Year 6) liked the part which talked about technology and the future and my younger son (10 and Year 5) just devoured and loved it all as he busily put a backstory to the lessons he's doing at school. He had more than a few eureka moments as he read. It is not easy to combine information and entertainment without sacrificing something on one side or the other, but Why Is Snot Green? manages remarkably well.

The whole book is a perfect exercise in plain but good English. The vocabulary isn't dumbed down for young readers and includes some fairly complex words. Rather, Murphy avoids the passive voice and sticks to short, direct and active sentences to convey some quite difficult concepts in a simple way. I heartily approve of this. English is a language with a great many words, each with a precise shade of meaning. The more words a child can collect, the better they are able to express themselves. Simple and straightforward doesn't have to be limited, as this book quite clearly proves. You can see why the Science Museum is such a success with people like Murphy in charge of training.

There's an awful lot of interesting information and illuminating context in this little book. There's also some very good writing and a decent dollop of dreadful puns too. And all for the pocket money price of a fiver. It's best suited to children in Years 5 and 6, at Key Stage 2 level, but it didn't feel babyish to me, at Key Stage Too Scary To Think About. It's highly recommended

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Science Fun, July 21, 2009

By	H. Hall (North Carolina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Why Is Snot Green? (Paperback)

"Why is Snot Green" is great book because it makes science fun. This book allows the reader (both young and old) to learn without the monotony of a typical science book. Targeted towards the interests of young scientists, this book allows children to learn about science in a entertaining way. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about science without the drudgery of a traditional text book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good questions -- great answers, February 6, 2009

By	Janet Williams "MagnoliaTriango" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was fun, fact-filled, and a real delight to read, even for me. Once the author opened his topics, he tracked down all the related juicy stuff I wish I'd been creative enough to ask when I was a kid. Silly -- but TOTALLY smart.