Science Encyclopedia (Pocket Guides) (ISBN 0789428717)

Amazon.com Review:
What fits in your pocket yet holds the continents, the oceans, and all the stars? The Pocket Science Encyclopedia! This small but sturdy volume is organized into four main themed categories: "Chemistry and Physics," "Earth and Weather," "Space," and "The Living World." In these categories are more than 200 two-page entries on more detailed subjects, like "Explosive Volcanoes," "Life Cycle of a Star," and "Simple Invertebrates." To supplement the text information, more than 1,000 photos, illustrations, and diagrams help readers understand even the most difficult scientific topic. This is the book to take on a field trip, vacation, or visit to the boring relatives' house, because it's filled with great tidbits and stuff to investigate. For a bigger, stay-at-home version of this fact-packed little encyclopedia, The DK Science Encyclopedia can't be beat. (Ages 9 to 12) --Therese Littleton

The Fragility of Science:
DK makes some of the world's best books for kids; that is indisputable. It's easy to nitpick, of course. The precision photography of the DK books, and the very attention to detail can render the technology information obsolete fairly rapidly. But for the here and now, DK books have no rival. However, they may well not last beyond the now. Here's my pet peeve with this particular book: It is so big and heavy, that if your kids love this book as much as mine do, the cover will quickly separate from the book, leaving the whole thing vulnerable to unravelling. We've lost our contents and index already, now we're losing our science history pages! I'm so sad about this! This book literally falls apart under its own weight, when handled by children. I will attempt a hold-together fix with some duct tape, but I'm not sure how long that will last. This book is such an incredible resource, and kids will spend hours reading it to themselves or dragging it over to you for an explanation of this or that, but its construction is not sufficiently strong for its weight and target age level. A tough paperback binding would have been a far better thing. Kids need strong, strong books. If you want to keep this book in spiffy condition, then by all means put it up on a shelf, defeat the purpose of buying it in the first place, and then your kids can sell it on e-bay in 50 years or so as an antique curiosity. If you're some hyper-organized size-5 perfect freak of nature, you can keep it on your special shelf of fragile books that you personally take down and read to your children for 25 minutes every day after Yoga, and then you can do the same for your grandchildren, if your kids ever let you see them. If you let this book just get enjoyed and learned from freely, you can expect that a: Your kids will love it and learn a lot, and b: The book won't last two years, unless you only have girls, who tend to be less destructive little beasts. I don't think girls will attempt to place this book as a bridge between couch and coffee table, then jump on it. Boys might. Punks.

DK Science Encyclopedia:
This book is great. It gives many pictures and illustrations. It helped me immensely with my science class.

Great Intoduction to Science for Children:
This is a book well suited to give a overview of a wide range of scientific topics. It may not be the end all as a scientific reference, but will spark your child's interest and imagination about science. After reading this book, your child will want to go on to more detailed books about their specific areas of interest. The book is organized into chapters of broad topics such as Matter, Reactions, Materials, Electricity, Sound and Light, Weather, Space, Living things, etc. The breadth of subjects is a welcome change. The school curriculum of elementary children tends to be patchy, and this book fills in many gaps that they may not even touch on in Science Class. Each page is filled with colorful and attention grabbing illustrations. There is a short synopsis of the subtopic and then the page is filled with factoids which match the attention span of children this age. My son enjoyed this book immensely and it was his favorite for two years. It was a great nightime "story" book.

Every Home Should Have This Book:
and I truly mean this. For adults, adolesents and kids as young as two years old, this is a great resource and highly enjoyable book for all ages. My 3 year old LOVES it, my 5 year old LOVES it, and when flipping through it with them together as a bedtime book, I almost always wind up reading and adding to my own knowledge-base myself. This is a book that you would expect to retail for $50 and at this Amazon price, it is a real deal.

DK Science Encyclopedia:
If you have an inquisitive child and you are a little rusty on science facts and figures, this is the book for BOTH of you!! Fun and interesting to read. A great reference book as well. A little on the pricey side, but packs a lot of information in one place. Great illustrations. Nice layout.