Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Physics: Why Matter Matters!

Top positive review

Amazing Science Book!

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019

I am making it my personal mission to collect all of the Basher Science books. They are absolutely wonderful; I’ve never seen books like them before. If you have a child in your life that is keen on science (or one that isn’t!), these are amazing books to spark their curiosity.
Part graphic novel, the books have cute little illustrated characters to make big, complicated, even intimidating concepts kid-friendly. Each concept is written in first person, making it relatable. The side is color-coded, so you can easily flip to the chapter on the Wave Gang or Electric Cuties.
I cannot say enough about these books. To think that my 6 year old is reading about physics and LOVING it is extraordinary.

7 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Sarah L. Wesch

Not what I expected

Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2017

This is not what I hoped it would be. As others have noted, it's a glossary of terms. I wanted something that would help introduce this subject to my children, but presenting a bunch of terms isn't what I was aiming for. Perhaps would be better for older students who are struggling to grasp a particular concept, but isn't appropriate as an introductory text for younger learners.

11 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Amazing Science Book!

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

7 people found this helpful

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Roswell Ginny

perfect silliness level to keep him engaged

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2017

Verified Purchase

My son is a voracious reader. We got him 7 of the Basher Science books for his 8th birthday in late March. He had finished them all by the end of April and has picked them back up again to reread. (2nd grade, reading at a U-level) He won't touch a fiction book unless forced, but if it is about science or technology he can't put it down. Just enough pictures to keep him from feeling intimidated by the text, perfect silliness level to keep him engaged, and more real science facts than he could absorb the first time through.

6 people found this helpful

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Sarah L. Wesch

Not what I expected

Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

11 people found this helpful

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ChaosCreatorx5

The force is strong with this one...

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

Basher Science books are engaging dictionaries of common (and some uncommon) terms in a given area of study. The Physics book is no different. I love having it to reference and introduce my elementary schoolers to the various characters that are about to make our experiments work(or not work, as the case may be).

8 people found this helpful

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Melissa T.

Cute but confusing

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2012

Verified Purchase

I purchased this book for a nine-year-old girl who is very interested in science and math. I'm a friend of her parents and love to help promote her interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.

She loves the book; unfortunately I haven't been around to see what kinds of questions she has about it. I read it myself before giving it to her just to see what it was like.

The illustrations are really cute and well-done. Some of them have some subtle humor. Each page spread is about a different topic; there is an illustration on the right-hand page and a short summary on the left-hand side, plus some bullet-point facts. I liked the variety of topics included, from the basics (atoms, waves, mass, energy, protons, etc.) to some more obscure topics (as far as kids are concerned): dark matter, the higgs-boson, blackbody radiation, Schrodinger's cat, and so on. However, I am not sure if there is any meaningful way to explain the more advanced topics (like the higgs-boson) to kids who are just learning about matter, energy, and atoms. I found the explanations of the advanced topics to be more confusing than helpful, but maybe they will spark kids' interest in further study. Similarly, I don't see the point of the book's use of scientific notation to describe the sizes of things, since the numbers used are pretty darn hard to comprehend and there was no primer on scientific notation included.

Another quibble is that sometimes the book uses nomenclature that isn't explained until further along in the book or in the glossary at the end. Something like "check out page 34" or whatever would have been helpful in these situations, as not every entry is listed in the table of contents.

One reviewer noted that there is too much slang. I wouldn't call it slang so much as excessive use of colloquialisms and idioms. I definitely would not recommend the book for non-native speakers of english.

Overall, I found this to be a fun book that will spark kids' interest on a lot of topics related to physics and be a starting-point for learning about the topic. It would be a good reference for a kid to have around.

7 people found this helpful

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bravenewcraig

Great resource for kids (and dads who have trouble with science)

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

My son kept re-checking this out from the library. I enjoyed the simple explanations so much I thought it was worth getting a copy for the house. I wish I had this when I was my sons age; I think I would have probably done better in science because of it ;).

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guitar geek

Really mixed feelings, but strongly recommended anyway.

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

This review applies to MOST of the Basher books as they all seem to share the same mix of excellence and failure.

First, these books are GREAT in that they present some of the terminology/jargon of the subject matter in a way that seems to interest small children! (in my experience, ages 4-7 seems about right) This is actually a BIG DEAL, as the books reliably deal in wonderfully important subjects. For this, I highly recommend them and thank the authors and publishers for their effort!

However... there are two ways in which I find these books to be terribly disappointing:

1) The attempts to make each entry clever and fun raise the effective reading level high above the target audience. Clever puns and delightfully descriptive diatribes do not go over so well with young children just beginning to read. My six year old is completely ready for the subject matter, but struggles to the point of giving up (!!) trying to manage the prose.

2) IMHO, the attempts at fun language and clever characterizations often work to obscure the simplicity of the subject matter at hand. As a scientist who understands many of the concepts under discussion, I often find myself marveling at how these descriptions express an opaque and incomprehensible version of what are fundamentally simple ideas.

*sigh*

Basher Guys... I LOVE what you are trying to do. IMHO, if you can find a way to simplify the prose, and not let "characterizations" get in the way of "simple explanations", then you will be changing the WORLD!!

So despite my reservations... BUY THESE BOOKS!... I think that as long as they use it to try to do better, these guys have TOTALLY earned our income!!

12 people found this helpful

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M. Dallas

Good introduction for elementary schoolers

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

Wonderful presentation of information for elementary school science. The whole series is fantastic. Child learns along with being entertained.

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R. Pan

Fun intro to Physics concepts

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2011

Verified Purchase

I bought several of the Basher series of books based on other reviews and have not been disappointed. My 3 1/2 year old son wanted us to read him the books as soon as he saw the covers - so that definitely grabbed his attention. He has asked for them to be read repeatedly so it's not just a first sight curiosity. I don't expect him to really understand most of the concepts but it's good to introduce just the words and ideas into his head and he enjoys it. These books aren't meant to be detailed explanations but are high level concept overviews and it does a good job at that.

One person found this helpful

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Mary Smith

My Kids Say "Mom, can you read the physics book to us tonight?"

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2009

Verified Purchase

Amazing. Fantastic. My 6 and 8 year old love this book. I bought it because my sister (their aunt) has a Ph.D in physics and I wanted a kids book that explained some of the concept of what she does. What surprised me is the elegance and creativity of the illustrations and the writing. It is not something you see often in kids books. I found the words stayed with me and the kids. The kids would refer to the "friends" and could tell me about the different concepts days later. Definitely get it if you have kids curious about the world and you want to give them broad awareness of how the universe works.

3 people found this helpful

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