All The Science You Need To Know By Age 7

Katie Daynes

Stefano Tognetti

Usborne, 2020

80pp., hbk., RRP $A19.99

9781474968966

Little people always have lots of questions about the world around them – it’s how they find out how it works.  Often the answers to those questions lie in quite profound science and relate to topics like plants. animals, materials, time., weather, forces and energy, all of which are gathered together with others in this single volume that provides the basic answers beginning with the premise that a scientist is one “who studies the world around us”  and therefore anyone can be one using their powers of observation and some simple tools.

Author Katie Daynes is a specialist in answering questions about science for young people and so you can be assured that the information in the book is pitched at just the right level and offered in a format that is accessible and appealing. As well as the colour-coded sections there are also a glossary and an index, both supporting early information literacy skills as students learn to navigate non fiction texts efficiently and effectively. And, as is common with publications from Usborne, there  are curated quicklinks which provide further information to support further questions.

As National Science Week gets underway this is an ideal text to capitalise on children’s natural curiosity, demystify what science is and open up a whole new world at the same time.  Perhaps an interest piqued today will be the knowledge that defeats a pandemic tomorrow.