More great reads: the best books for 9 year olds
"A wonderfully accessible compendium of some brilliant answers to all the big questions that curious kids and science fans might have about how the universe works. "
Dr Kanani is a brilliant science communicator, as she has proved in books like Can you Get Music on the Moon? Here she has written a book that, as she hopes in her dedication to teachers everywhere, is ‘The physics textbook you’ve always wanted for your students’.
With some stunning illustrations from Liz Kay and an engaging design and layout, this is indeed a very long way from a boring science textbook. It takes ten core scientific concepts and explains not only why it is important, but gives the origin of the idea or discovery and, as the author is an advocate for diversity in physics and astronomy, this is often not what one had assumed. So, we see for example that Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion was predated by the work of Ibn Sĩnâ an Islamic scholar of 980 CE.
The explanations of the ideas are thoroughly grounded in the everyday so that readers can put the ideas into the context of their lives, which is great way to aid understanding. She is also very good at showing the connections between ideas and cross referencing within the book to help with deeper understanding. Engaging Big Facts to impress and amaze other people are dotted throughout the text too.
This is a writer who really understands curiosity as a guiding force of humanity! Having covered Light, Sound, Forces, Matter, Magnetism and Electricity and given her astrophysical background, it is perhaps no surprise that there are no less than four sections dealing with the big questions of astrophysics, such as the mystery of what stars are made of, The Big Bang, Relativity and Dark Matter, but even here she is able to show how the ideas have developed and who has contributed to them.
The conclusion draws it all together rather beautifully, making the point that ‘Science isn’t a competition’, it works best with teamwork and, by supporting each other, the sky is not the limit! With a valuable glossary of terms and an index, this is a really valuable addition to any science collection, but it also has a lot of dip in appeal for leisure reading and a great quiz to test what fascinating facts you have picked up!
Readers who enjoyed Christopher Edge’s Quantum will love this.
Dr Sheila Kanani is here to explain ten of the most EXTRAORDINARY ideas in science - and introduce the incredible brains that you never knew were behind them.
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Great for science fans from age 10 upwards but I think it's best to have adult help to talk through the ideas.
This is the sort of book that you can read a little at a time and I think it would be good if you'd learnt about the subject in science lessons. I did find some of it a bit confusing and there's some stuff that you can't really get your head around, but there were some cool facts about earth and space. The pictures are good and you don't feel like you are being talked down to by the authors. I loved the chapter about Dark Matter as it was sooo interesting!
There is also a helpful glossary at the end to explain words.... Read Full Review
Five stars for this really interesting science book. It’s packed full of lots of interesting facts about the universe and it is well illustrated. Definitely worth reading!
I really enjoyed this book. It’s a really interesting science fact book filled to the brim with information and answers to all sorts of questions such as “how does gravity work?” and “what is an atom?”
My favourite section was “The Big Bang”.
I would recommend this book for any children who are interested in widening their knowledge about science and the universe.
The illustrations on every page are really clear and well designed so that the text doesn’t become overwhelming.... Read Full Review
detailed explanations innovative comparisons useful diagrams easy to understand well organised gives a full understanding
I loved the detailed explanations. I thought the comparisons the author made were very innovative and helped keep the reader engaged. I found the diagrams very useful as it gave me a thorough understanding. I thought it was well organised into categories of subjects.... Read Full Review
Dr Sheila Kanani is here to explain ten of the most EXTRAORDINARY ideas in science - and introduce the incredible brains that you never knew were behind them.Each chapter explores one important idea: how it works, why it's important, and the real story of how it was discovered. Did you know for example that Isaac Newton was influenced by scientists from the Islamic Golden Age?
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed 10 Extraordinary Ideas That Shaped Our Universe and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
10 Extraordinary Ideas That Shaped Our Universe features in the following genres: Featured Books for 9+ readers, Featured Books for 11+ readers, Books of the Month, Books Reviewed by our Reader Review Panels, Recommendations, General Knowledge & Trivia, The Natural World, Space, Children’s / Teenage: General interest, Children’s, Teenage and Educational
Hardback. £15.29, down from the £16.99 cover price. In Stock.
10 Extraordinary Ideas That Shaped Our Universe was written by Sheila Kanani and published by Puffin an imprint of Penguin Random House Children's UK
10 Extraordinary Ideas That Shaped Our Universe has 155 pages
£15.29, reduced from £16.99. In Stock.
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