Books in Dover Children's Science Books series

If you like to color and love to solve puzzles, too, this entertaining activity book is just for you. Connect the dots and you'll find out how a jolly frog is going out to sea, which lovable bird can't fly but is a great swimmer, what animal is very good at juggling a ball, and lots of other interesting things. And when you've finished connecting the dots, the fun's not over, because now you'll have 30 pictures to color! There are hours of fun in store for you, and all the while, you'll be learning new things, too.

The soil in forests, meadows, and fields — even in vacant city lots or your own backyard — swarms with countless tiny creatures, most of which are born, struggle for life, and die just beneath the earth’s surface. In fact, you can find a bountiful sampling of these underground inhabitants simply by filling a bucket with soil. The small animals you’re likely to find are vividly described in this fascinating, easy-to-read book, specially designed to acquaint you with a vast, living world beneath your feet.You’ll learn about tunnel-building earthworms; threadlike, wriggly roundworms; snails and slugs (the “slime gliders”); armored scavengers such as wood lice and centipedes; “flying tanks,” more commonly known as beetles; lurking hunters such as spiders; the busy underground colonies of ants; and numerous other inhabitants of the soil. You’ll find out how these diminutive animals live, breed, and interact; learn about their methods of locomotion, feeding, and defense; and even discover how they affect the soil in which they live. The authors also provide helpful suggestions for collecting specimens and explain how they can be preserved and studied.Illustrated with more than 70 detailed black-and-white drawings, this fact-filled book will introduce you to an amazing subterranean world most people never even think about. It is sure to appeal to young naturalists, junior biologist, insect lovers, and anyone curious about the natural world.

What better way is there to learn than by doing? This unusual book enables children to carry out more than 77 different experiments and demonstrations, carefully planned to illustrate important principles of modern science. Clear step-by-step instructions, frequent diagrams, clear statements of conclusions all enable the young student to carry through these experiments with minimal supervision, yet full success.The book is divided into four parts. The first part, The Nature of All Living Things, introduces cells and discusses how to use the microscope to observe a variety of living things. The other three parts, The World of Plants, The World of Animals, and The Human Animal, systematically investigate plant and animal life, answering such questions as why and how plants and animals live and grow, why leaves are actually food factories, why all living things need sunlight, and how you can raise plants without seeds. The experiments provide first-hand experience with growing one-celled animals and bacteria, building a terrarium, observing the binding force of roots, growing seeds in a sponge, learning why a spider spins a web, why a fish has gills, how certain plants live on insects, and other fascinating facts about plants and animals. The basic piece of equipment for these experiments is a microscope. Specimens for examination can be found in and around the home.This volume offers upper grade school, junior high school, and high school students a very entertaining way to enrich their background in science and its applications. It is also a very valuable aid to parents, teachers, and others who wish to make clear, forceful demonstrations to children.

Birdwatchers, or "birders," keep life lists in which they note their first sighting of a species — indicating the date, place, habitat, etc. This easy-to-read, fact-filled workbook will help young birdwatchers begin keeping their own life lists as they learn about 48 common North American birds — among them the blue jay, American crow, ruby-throated hummingbird, yellow-billed cuckoo, mourning dove, barn owl, red-tailed hawk, northern oriole, red-winged blackbird, and red-headed woodpecker.Written and illustrated by nature artist Sy Barlowe, the book includes space on each page for a numbered sticker illustration of the bird described, along with information on bird size, habitat, nesting and eating habits, number and color of eggs, and range. There's also a place for recording the date, time, and locality of the sighting and for adding personal remarks.A great way to combine sticker fun with an educational experience, this hands-on record-keeping book will motivate young naturalists and perhaps stimulate a lifelong interest in the rewarding hobby of birdwatching.

Delightful collection of 60 limericks includes famous rhymes by such masters of the form as Gelett Burgess, Oliver Herford, and Edward Lear, as well as lesser-known works by these and other humorists, including the editor himself. Fun to read, easy to memorize and great to share with family and friends, each entertaining snippet of verse is accompanied by an equally humorous illustration.

A barber in Chicago says he'd rather cut the hair of ten red-headed men than the hair of one brown-haired man. Can you guess why?Ask Professor Picanumba, a master of riddles who carries dozens of surefire tricks up his sleeve. He'll show you how to astonish your friends and family by predicting the answers to 88 word and number challenges. These tricks require only simple props — a deck of cards or a couple of pairs of dice, a calculator, and a pencil and paper. With or without an audience, these foolproof feats of mental magic offer hours of amusement. Solutions appear at the end, with 64 illustrations in between.Author Martin Gardner has written more than 70 books on subjects from science and math to poetry and religion. Well known for the mathematical games that appeared in Scientific American for decades and for his "Trick of the Month" column in Physics Teacher magazine, Gardner has had a lifelong passion for magic tricks and puzzles.

Does a curve ball really curve? Why is a football made to spiral when it's thrown? How is the bounce of a basketball tested before a game? These and hundreds of other questions are answered in this fascinating book—an easy-to-follow examination of the scientific principles underlying baseball, football, basketball and other sports.In clear, simple language, noted science educator George Barr presents physical concepts that can help youngsters improve their athletic skillswhile making them more knowledgeable spectators of sports. Inerita vs. motion, gravity, speed, trajectory, and action vs. reaction are among the topics covered in Mr. Barr's well-illustrated presentation.Here are intriguing descriptions of what happens when baseballs are pitched and batted, and the physical processes involved in catching, fielding and running bases. You'll discover how the principles of momentum come into play in football, while a discussion of basketball provides scientific insights on the movement of the ball around the court in a high-speed game. A special chapter on the athlete's body describes how certain principles of physics can affect a player's ability to perform, and how youngsters can improve their performance by letting science work for them instead of against them.While most of the book is devoted to baseball, football and basketball, the author has also included a delightful chapter on other sports. Here are the answers to such puzzling questions as: What helps riders keep their balance on a bike? Why do golf balls have dimples? and more.Sure to appeal to any athletically minded youngster with an interest in the science behind the sports, this book is one "no school library shelf whould be without" (New York Herald Tribune).

This educational, fun-filled book will show you how to dazzle audiences with dozens of fascinating tricks based on scientific principles. Included are more than 50 safe demonstrations easily performed at home or in the classroom with a ping-pong ball, broom, potato, balloon, coins, playing cards, and other common items. Clear illustrations and simple, easy-to-follow instructions enable you to perform dozens of "tricks" involving mathematics, chemistry, inertia, magnets, optical illusions, and physics. Astound friends and relatives by cutting glass with scissors, inserting a pin in a balloon without popping it, creating a magical doorway out of paper, concocting witch's dust and "wet" fire, practicing the art of secret writing, and successfully accomplishing many other mystifying feats. Best of all, as you entertain audiences with these eye-popping tricks, you'll be learning important scientific facts and principles. These science magic tricks make learning fun!

More than 100 entertaining projects and experiments are a fast and reliable way of learning basic principles of electricity. For maximum exposure to the fundamentals, three major categories — static electricity, magnetism, and current electricity and electromagnetism — are treated separately. No special or expensive materials are required. Detailed instructions and illustrations.

This entertaining and instructive activity book introduces English-speaking children to simple words in the Japanese language. Japanese youngsters just beginning to read and write also will find the easy-to-follow book helpful. Spaces are provided for drawing each hiragana symbol with one, two, or three strokes. Forty-six characters make up the basic Japanese hiragana, or alphabet, with each symbol of the hiragana depicting a syllable rather than a single letter. With these 46 characters, you'll be able to write hundreds of words in Japanese — from ahiru (duck), ame (candy)‚ and atama (head) to yuki (snow), yuri (lily), and yubi (finger).For each character, there is a selection of ready-to-color illustrations of items whose names begin with that character — more than 330 words in all — along with the word in Japanese characters. A separate list accompanies the Japanese word with a transliteration and an English translation. The book also lists 58 hiragana "modified syllables" used to form thousands of additional words.