Follow Your Nose: Discover Your Sense of Smell (Five Senses)

Gr. 3-5. Hip collage and lively text combine in these Five Senses volumes, written in the second person. The text weaves basic concepts into anecdotes and suggestions for easy experiments, which are illustrated with kitchy, irreverent collages contributed by Cynthia Lewis. In nostalgic images and edgy humor, the art sometimes sacrifices clarity for style: text explaining how the body processes scent, for example, is accompanied by an unlabeled image resembling an old medical illustration, which adds to the design but doesn't really give young readers an understanding of the physiology. Most likely, though, these books, with their easily replicable experiments and lighthearted blend of fact and humor will engage children and prompt them to move on to more substantive volumes. Gillian Engberg
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