My Kids Love the Basher Science Books

At a recent homeschool support group meeting in which we shared our favorite science books, a mother showed one of Simon Basher’s books.(Basher is credited as creating the book and doing the illustrations, each book has a different author credited for the text.) I’d never seen or heard of Basher or this series published by Kingfisher.



Then while at the American Museum of Natural History, I spied some of his titles for sale in the gift shop: Astronomy. My interest was piqued.















I went on to buy one (Physics) from Amazon.com and my twelve year old loved it and read it cover to cover in a matter of days. When I told him this author has written more, he asked for them.


























So using a gift card, I went on to buy all the other available titles in Basher’s science series that have been published to date (more are slotted for publication in 2010). Why am I not using library books instead? They are not readily available and any time my kids read science books on their own for pleasure, and especially they are books that are easily re-readable, I want them laying around our house at our convenient disposal!

















My twelve year old just finished a second book (The Periodic Table) and my nine year old is half way through Planet Earth. My kids can’t get enough of these books. They also love them so much they both just begged me to hang the free posters that came with the books they are reading. (Not all the books have a poster.)



These 8 x 8 inch books are laid out with two page spreads. Each science term or item is the topic on the two page spread. Components of the definition of the featured thing are made into a silly illustration of a little person or a personalized thing with the real name for the term. This illustration provides visual clues as to the term’s meaning. The full-color illustration fills the right page and the left page tells about the thing using sometimes silly language. By making almost a little story with some humor this helps the reader remember facts about the topic.




Example from The Periodic Table: Arsenic: The Nitrogen Elements is (in part):

“Make no mistake—I am a deadly element. A murderer’s delight and a master of disguise to boot! One minute I’m a gray-colored metal, the next a yellow-colored nonmetal, and my furtive ability to hide with ease and avoid detection makes me a favorite choice of the poisoner. Since I’ve got the properties of both a metal and a nonmetal, I’m known as a metalloid. I wreak havoc in developing countries, where industrial pollution allows me to sneak into drinking water.”

That is an example of part of the description of arsenic. It also has facts like its symbol (As), the density, melting point, boiling point, color, standard state, classification and other item in bullet point format.







An example from Planet Earth is (in part):

“Mountain Range: Distant, magical, cold, and inaccessible, I am a lofty fellow whose head is in the Clouds. People can’t help looking up at me, and they have made me the mythical seat of demons and dragons. But the truth is more unbelievable! I snake across the land in belts and chains, like scars on Continents. These lines are the stitch marks where two bits of Earth’s Crust have been forcibly joined together as Plates collide. The mighty woomph of Plates crumpling into one another pushes Crust up in huge wrinkles that form my longest ranges. The taller and more jagged my peaks, the younger I am, since older ranges have been worn down and smoothed by Erosion.”




This type of story telling with facts and using a full color illustration and humor is ideal for visual-spatial learners (right brained learners).  (For more of my thoughts on right brained learners click on the label below to find my former blog posts on that topic.)The use of the poster can help students remember the information as well. Although perhaps not all the facts will go instantly into long-term memory, this is a step in the right direction and traditional study skills (or visual-spatial methods) can be used to help memorization.



As to what grade level this is appropriate for, at first glance one may say elementary grade students. An issue is the child’s interest level. If you have an upper elementary grade student who can read this to themselves who is interested in the topic they would love this. The words are not as with ‘easy reader’ books and some concepts are more appropriate for middle schoolers and upper middle school despite the text being short and the use of humor and silly illustrations which may seem to some students to make this a more ‘babyish’ book. I disagree completely.


In summary I love these books for a silly presentation using a bit of a story format and inclusion of real facts that doesn’t talk down to children. I like the visual clues in the illustrations and the posters to help students remember. When my kids asked to hang their posters I suggested they hang them on the large bathroom mirror so they can look at it while they brush their teeth. Two minutes in the morning and another two in the evening thinking about these terms may be the easiest and most effective study method ever.

















Note: I have not yet read the Simon Basher book on grammar: punctuation or math and cannot comment on them.

Disclosure: I have not been paid to post this or mention these books. For my blog's full disclosure statement see the link at the top of my blog's sidebar.