Marvin and Milo: Adventures in Science by Caitlin Watson and Vic Le Billon
| Marvin and Milo: Adventures in Science by Caitlin Watson and Vic Le Billon | |
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| Category: Children's Non-Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: Lots of fun, easy to do at home physics experiments for children. The explanatory text is just occasionally a little dry but the cartoons for how to do the experiments are great! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 96 | Date: September 2011 |
| Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 978-0230758490 | |
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My dad studied physics, and I think he was always a little disappointed that I didn't fall in love with the subject too. Perhaps if he'd had a Marvin and Milo book to share with me things would've been different? Marvin and Milo are a cat and a dog who like doing experiments, and this book contains 45 of their experiments which you are most definitely encouraged to try at home!
Each experiment allows one page for description and explanation, and the other page is given over to a cartoon of Milo and Marvin detailing what you need for the experiment and how to conduct it. You needn't worry that you'll be flailing around the house looking for unusual ingredients or items to use since almost all the experiments seem to involve common household items such as old food cartoons, string, scissors, sticky tape and water. There are a few which might need a little more thought, but you'd definitely be able to do a few experiments as soon as you have a copy of the book!
The characters of Marvin and Milo are quite appealing, and the illustrations of their antics are entertaining. I like that they're not being terribly serious about their investigations into the world of physics and they just look like they're having fun. The experiments themselves include everything from blowing bubbles into different kinds of milk (who'd have thought skimmed milk froths up faster than whole milk?!), keeping a tissue dry even though you'd plunged it into a bowl of water, and making a biscuit tin roll uphill...
I suppose my only issue with the book was that sometimes the explanations of why things are happening the way they are in the experiments were a little dry, though of course my brain seems to fuzz over once people start talking about polar molecules and negative charges. The language is mostly accessible for KS2 children, and some of the descriptions are better than others. I would personally have preferred the arrangement to perhaps intersperse the cartoons themselves with the explanations of 'why' rather than having to read through a few paragraphs of explanation first then moving onto the experiment. I'm sure, though, that plenty of little budding scientists out there will be happy to read or listen to you read the explanations before diving into the experiments themselves, and if, like me, you're not of a scientific bent then you might find that you learn something along the way too!
You could easily do these experiments with a wide age range of children, so pre-schoolers who have a hankering to do messy things with cups and water will enjoy them as much as older primary school children who will probably want to give some of them a go by themselves. They're great for rainy day activities too, when the kids are driving you wild and you need something to keep them quiet for ten minutes!
For more fun things to do try Ripping Things to Do by Jane Brocket or Pop-Up: A Paper Engineering Masterclass by Ruth Wickings and Frances Castle
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You can read more book reviews or buy Marvin and Milo: Adventures in Science by Caitlin Watson and Vic Le Billon at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Marvin and Milo: Adventures in Science by Caitlin Watson and Vic Le Billon at Amazon.com.
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