Product Description

Packed with facts, figures, and statistics in four key areas--chemistry and physics, the living world, the Earth and weather, and space--this indispensable school and homework aid includes more than 1,000 full-color maps, photographs, diagrams, charts, and illustrations. An amazingly compact encyclopedia of scientific knowledge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #754598 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.com Review
What fits in your pocket yet holds the continents, the oceans, and all the stars? The Pocket Science Encyclopedia! This small but sturdy volume is organized into four main themed categories: "Chemistry and Physics," "Earth and Weather," "Space," and "The Living World." In these categories are more than 200 two-page entries on more detailed subjects, like "Explosive Volcanoes," "Life Cycle of a Star," and "Simple Invertebrates." To supplement the text information, more than 1,000 photos, illustrations, and diagrams help readers understand even the most difficult scientific topic. This is the book to take on a field trip, vacation, or visit to the boring relatives' house, because it's filled with great tidbits and stuff to investigate. For a bigger, stay-at-home version of this fact-packed little encyclopedia, The DK Science Encyclopedia can't be beat. (Ages 9 to 12) --Therese Littleton

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8?A revision of the 1993 edition with minor changes and additions, this volume differs from its nearest competitor, The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia (1993) chiefly in its basic organization; rather than an alphabetical arrangement, the 280 entries are grouped into 12 topical sections ("Weather," "Ecology," "Reactions," etc.). Each one-to-two page article is drizzled with small, clipped color photos and paintings supplemented by boxed capsule biographies, brief side excursions, and see-also references. The book concludes with a relatively dense "Fact Finder Section" into which are gathered charts, statistics, and specialized terms. Updating has been done with such a light hand that there is still no mention of flat-screen TV, the World Wide Web, cloned mammals, or the Mars Pathfinder expedition. Still, for its emphasis on the interconnectedness of science and technology, this title has a place in collections. Consider it as a fresh replacement copy rather than a new work.?John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American
This excellent reference is clearly written and richly illustrated. A great lookup resource for kids in elementary and middle school, its highly visual pages are also a fascinating browse for parents. Comprehensive information is presented accessibly in 12 thematic sections, each by an expert team of specialists, educators and science writers.

Customer Reviews

Excellent combination of graphical and textual learning
This book can clearly teach you the core basics of every branch of science. This book is a joy to read and see.

This book will appeal to old and young alike.

This book does not dwell on any subject for too long so don't expect exhaustive information on a particular category.

For people who like comics this book is especially suited.

With this book alone, anyone can have obtain an extensive understanding of the world of science and nature.

Typos
This book covers almost everything school children will learn in science class. My children refer to it often to look for those extra new details concerning their classes. However they have discovered some errors (and this is the revised ed.)which I will call typos especially in the Periodic Table, which did dampen their enthusiasm with the book and shook their trust a little.

The Fragility of Science
DK makes some of the world's best books for kids; that is indisputable. It's easy to nitpick, of course. The precision photography of the DK books, and the very attention to detail can render the technology information obsolete fairly rapidly. But for the here and now, DK books have no rival. However, they may well not last beyond the now. Here's my pet peeve with this particular book: It is so big and heavy, that if your kids love this book as much as mine do, the cover will quickly separate from the book, leaving the whole thing vulnerable to unravelling. We've lost our contents and index already, now we're losing our science history pages! I'm so sad about this! This book literally falls apart under its own weight, when handled by children. I will attempt a hold-together fix with some duct tape, but I'm not sure how long that will last. This book is such an incredible resource, and kids will spend hours reading it to themselves or dragging it over to you for an explanation of this or that, but its construction is not sufficiently strong for its weight and target age level. A tough paperback binding would have been a far better thing. Kids need strong, strong books. If you want to keep this book in spiffy condition, then by all means put it up on a shelf, defeat the purpose of buying it in the first place, and then your kids can sell it on e-bay in 50 years or so as an antique curiosity. If you're some hyper-organized size-5 perfect freak of nature, you can keep it on your special shelf of fragile books that you personally take down and read to your children for 25 minutes every day after Yoga, and then you can do the same for your grandchildren, if your kids ever let you see them. If you let this book just get enjoyed and learned from freely, you can expect that a: Your kids will love it and learn a lot, and b: The book won't last two years, unless you only have girls, who tend to be less destructive little beasts. I don't think girls will attempt to place this book as a bridge between couch and coffee table, then jump on it. Boys might. Punks.