New this spring from Storey Publishing, Rainbow Science and Discovering Plants and Flowers are both fun science books for kids.  Accessible for and appealing to the younger crowd, these encourage hands-on interaction.

Rainbow Science

Rainbow Science covers a spectrum (pun intended). As you might expect, this 48-page hardcover book spends a lot of time talking about light, refraction, and how rainbows are formed. It doesn’t stop there, though. Additional experiments draw on the appeal of brightly-colored things to explore chemistry, as well.

It’s full of appealing, brightly-colored illustrations (with children of varied ethnicities) and simple experiments that older elementary kids can probably do mostly on their own and younger kids can do with help. (Of course adults should oversee anything that might be a safety hazard, but these are all pretty safe.)

The book even includes a pocket inside the front cover that holds a pair of “rainbow glasses.”

These “rainbow glasses” have lenses made of prismatic paper, which you might be able to make out in the photos.

When you wear the glasses, they refract the light much like a standard prism would, so you see something like this:

Discovering Plants and Flowers

Discovering Plants and Flowers is a child-friendly field guide. This is reflected even in the physical design of the book. It’s a heavy-duty softcover, with a plasticky texture to repel water and rounded corners that aren’t as easily dinged up as conventional squared corners.

There are two basic types of page layouts here that alternate. One spread will be a type of plant (or plant part), with a full-page image and explanation on the left and a variety of examples on the right. The next spread will be an activity (such as a natural weaving craft) or additional information (such as the parts of a plant and its life cycle).

It includes a spread about plants to avoid  — including poison ivy and stinging nettle.

This is clearly designed to be interactive. There’s a built-in spotter’s log:

And a set of stickers that correspond to the plant-category pages, so kids can indicate when they’ve seen the plant in question, much like a “passport” of plant identification.

And just to make sure you have everything you need readily at hand, it even includes its own magnifying glass.

Either of these books would make for a great addition to a homeschool library, or a constructive way to keep kids occupied over summer break.

Rainbow Science: Discover How Rainbows Are Made, with 23 Fun Experiments & Colorful Activities!Constructive Playthings Light Crystal PrismBackpack Explorer: Discovering Plants and Flowers: What Will You Find?

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