Fizzing Physics

Science Crackers

by Steve Parker

This series will satisfy the most enquiring young scientific minds. With a back-to-basics approach to the core topics, these books investigate science in a clear and concise way and explain how science is relevant to children's everyday world.

32 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer of children's and adult's books. He has written more than 300 titles and contributed to or edited another 150.

Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in 1952, Parker attended Strodes College, Egham and gained a BSc First Class Honours in Zoology at the University of Wales, Bangor. He worked as an exhibition scientist at the Natural History Museum, and as editor and managing editor at Dorling Kindersley Publishers, and commissioning editor at medical periodical GP, before becoming a freelance writer in the late 1980s. He is a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Parker is based in Suffolk with his family.

Parker's writing career began with 10 early titles in Dorling Kindersley's multi-award-winning Eyewitness series, from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. He has since worked for more than a dozen children's book publishers and been shortlisted for, among others, the Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize, Times Educational Information Book of the Year, and Blue Peter Book Award.

Reviews

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book to learn different physics and how they work. Well written with a great layout. The pictures are bright colors with detail. Here is an interesting fact I didn’t know, too high for us, noises that are too high-pitched for us to hear are called ultrasound. Bats find their way by making ultrasonic squeaks and listening to the echoes that bounce off objects. In the back of the book there is a glossary. I highly recommend this book.

I was given this book from Quarto Knows for an honest review.

[Janet Squires · Rating 4 out of 5]

FIZZING PHYSICS by Steve Parker provides aspiring young scientists with an opportunity to explore machines, light, sound, electricity, and magnets in a fun and easily accessible format. Each section includes hands-on activities to demonstrate basic concepts through the use of everyday materials. The five main subjects are broken down into subtopics as in the case of Machines: simple machines, wheels, friction and so on. A colorful mix of carton style illustrations and photographs create eye-catching visuals.

[Debbie Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit choppy in presentation; clearly this is just to introduce some very basic concepts. So it would be a fine book for a really good 2nd or 3rd grade reader....The section on Sound is a bit wanting...do we really need an explanation of annoying sounds and that we want them to stop? More interesting would be why are some sounds annoying. And why do we need to be told that we need to have the right batteries for a particular appliance? (Duh?...but why is that, please explain!). So good for a very young but good reader, not good for older children...the experiments however range in difficulty for the very young (fishing with magnets) to the older (electrified potatoes).

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool read. A bit too busy for my liking and I could see kids being distracted in it. Like math books, I like books that show how interesting science is.