Customer Reviews

The Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of Science

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My children (2 and 3) adore this book. Much of it is over their heads, but they learn a little more each time they read through it. There are some fabulous pictures!
This contents of this book are as follows:
What is science?
What scientists do
Our Universe
What is the Earth made of?
The seasons
Weather
Living things
Cells
Plants
Animals
Your body
Bones and muscles
What happens to food?
Your brain and senses
Atoms and molecules
Solids, liquids and gas
How materials change
Energy
Forces
Hot and cold
Gravity
Floating
Friction
Magnets
Light and color
Sound
Electricity
Computers
I give the book 4, not 5 stars for 2 reasons. The first is that much of the information is a repeat if you own other Usborne First Encyclopedias. The second is that they switch between using technical terms (coccyx, vertebrae, fibula, etc.) to non-technical terms (breast bone, finger bones, jaw bone) in the same photograph. I wish they would use the technical terms all the time, instead of hopping back and forth.

This is a well written, well illustrated book that provides a two page spread to discuss topics such as "What is Science?" "Weather", "What Happens to Food?", "Energy", etc... It is a slim volume too, at 64 pages. I think it would be useful to introduce concepts to younger elementary students, and to review concepts with older students, perhaps asking them to elaborate on things they've studied more in-depth.

Also, every two-page spread refers you to one link on the Usborne website. I suppose this is to make sure the links stay current. However, once on the site you have to navigate a menu to find the book you want, or enter key words and page numbers. This is not the most user-friendly system, and the links provided are not very extensive - hardly worth the effort. A user would probably be better off just googling the topic. This should not deter you from purchasing the book, however, it stands quite well on its own (unless the idea of links was the main draw for you).

All in all a very solid 4 stars.

This book has been looked at and searched through a great deal already. The only thing that was disappointing was the internet link suggestions from within the book. I guess I expected more...

I ordered a class set of this book for my Science classroom. It is an excellent resource for my elementary students. We review many areas of science in preparation for our state test that is given to 5th graders. This book supplied the basics and is easy to read.

When we first received this book with our Second grade curriculum I was afraid it would be too basic, but we quickly learned how wonderful a resource these books are! My daughter soaked up this book like a sponge. She would ask to take it to bed with her, so she could read extra pages, and she jumped up and down with glee when I told her we would be buying more for next year. How many Science books can you say that about?

These are fantastic for a child's first introduction to Science, whether read aloud to Kindergarten-aged children, or given to older children for independent reading. Vocabulary words that are introduced throughout the book are listed in the back, if you chose to have your child work on memorization. The internet links that I have used, that are listed in the pages, are age-appropriate, and a lot of fun. I sometimes spend over and hour searching for sites to go along with what we've been learning! How wonderful to have it right there on the page!

We will continue to use these throughout Third grade, and once we get through these, I'm sure we'll be sticking with Usborne books.

Since the word "First" is in the title, I felt the need to explain that this is not exclusively a Kindergartner's Science book. My Second, going on Third grader adores them. I even learned some things from this book! There are several others in this series, and amazon.com has one or two on file that you can browse, if you choose. I recommend that you do, just in case you get them to find that your child already knows the information.

I, personally, cannot say enough good things about this book, though.

Nice simple science book. It's great to have several reference books and this is a great simple one!

I purchased this book because I will be homeschooling my 1st grader. We have not started the school year yet but I am excited to use it. This book is just a basic intro to different parts of science and most pages have a small/easy experiment to do to reinforce the idea. I particuarly liked this book also because it did not cover evolution and we are creationists. It did not cover creation either...but it did hit several other interesting parts of science.