FEEDING the minds of the young is not only fun, but can have pleasant side
effects. As they lose themselves in a book or a model kit, you may find peace
(that hallowed Christmas wish) actually descending over the scene.
Take the Dorling-Kindersley books 3D Space and 3D Dinosaurs
which our researchers Georgina (9) and Harriet (7) subjected to a test run. You
open the book, find an interesting question, then find the answer by placing a
mirror beside the picture to create a 3D image. Our intrepid team set them up in
seconds and eventually chose space as their favourite book. A word of warning
for parents, though. A few pictures didn’t work, and the team lost interest
quickly.
Nothing but praise for the next book, DK Guide to Weather by
Micahel Allaby (DK, £12.99). The writing is illustrated with stunning
pictures, in what Edwin (12) describes as “a thundering read overflowing with
information”. He added that this book would be extremely helpful with homework
and particularly enjoyed an unusual feature: you can find out what kind of
natural disasters happened in the year you were born.
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Scientific American’s How Things Work Today (Penguin, £22.50)
is a book that will hold the interest of older children and adults alike. It’s a
browser’s book: your mind can peacefully graze over exploded diagrams of
everyday objects from modern life. You can find out how a laser is put together;
follow a map of an imaginary city’s underground infrastructure, or grasp how
your video machine actually works (no hints on bullying it into recording what
you want, though). This book is clearly a solid buy.
Barbara Taylor’s Zooming and Creeping (Oxford, £5.99) takes
the tried and tested path to gripping a child’s imagination. The book is about
animal locomotion and it’s packed with images of animals in action. Cheerful and
chatty words are enlivened with interesting “Did you knows?” Rebecca (9) and
Holly (6) had a good chuckle when they read that the cheetah, the world’s
fastest sprinter, needs to get its breath back after just one minute of
sprinting.
If you want to move on from browsing and actually construct a few things for
yourself, get building with The Way Things Work Kit by David Macaulay
(DK, £19.99). It has 12 models to construct, ranging from a
straightforward pair of scales to a propeller-driven car (buy batteries for this
before Christmas day). The illustrated instruction cards are clear and self
explanatory. But adults will find that they may need to be on hand to help with
the trickier models, such as the car. You will find more ideas on the kit’s
accompanying quiz and CD-ROM. They’ll keep young minds ticking for a couple of
hours at least. And, of course, it’s a good start for basic science, not to
mention engineering.