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I don't normally do book reviews. That is not how I roll because maybe I am not from this particular terrestrial realm.
But let me make an exception for this book.
In short, this book has some pretty nice and fairly simple experiments that you could do at home with ordinary items. No particle accelerators needed.
What do I like about this book?
- Steve emphasizes a very important point. You can follow these 'science recipes' and reproduce the demo. But that is not science. The real science is when you take it to the next level. What happens if I put two tennis balls in this leaf blower? What happens if I make this balloon even bigger? That is where the science is.
- No special equipment needed for these demos. Just normal stuff. This reduces the barrier to actually trying these things out.
- Not too much in the way of explanations. For instance - floating a ping pong ball with a hair dryer. How does this work? The essential answer is "Bernoulli's principle". That is probably as good as an answer as you could get without getting too complicated.
- Nice pictures, not too long, and not too expensive for a book ($10 at Amazon)
If there aren't great explanations with these demos, then what is the point? I think the point is sparks. These demos can spark the interest in kids (or adults). Science is tough work - but you have to decide to want to do this work.
