Book Name: Newton’s Laws of Motion for Smartypants
Author: Anushka Ravishankar
Illustrated By: Pia Alize Hazarika
Publisher: Duckbill – An imprint of Penguin Random House
Type: Hardcover
No. of Pages: 40 pages
Recommended age: 6 years and above
I have always adored well scripted non fiction. This book series is beyond expectation because it remarkably explains the topics that are bit heavy for little brains.
We got the taste of author’s writing style by reading ‘Phiss Phuss Boom’ and ‘Moin and the Monster’ by Duckbill. But I would say Smartypants book series is phenomenal because Anushka Ravishankar has conveyed a lot of sense out of nonsense here. In this book, she has utilized the homonyms like rest and motion to keep young readers hooked to the topic.
Pia Alize Hazarika must be appreciated for the colorful and catchy illustrations. Dialogue boxes are used for the comic style talk with Smartypants, a curious cat. Simple, bold text is used for the physics concepts.
I was surprised when I was told that the book is for my 6-year-old to review. I decided to let her read on her own to get her views. After few days, I couldn’t believe it when she was able to discuss the laws in simple words with many examples from daily life.
Newton’s first law of motion:
R – The clock is at rest, but the moving hand is not.
R – It’s not loose motion, it is the slow-motion kind of motion.
R – The fan is pushing the air and that’s making the curtains move.
R – How does a switch make the fan run or stop?
R – Why does my scooter slow down after some time?
It was time for us to explore gravity, electricity and frictional force. My 10-year-old was quick to slip a coin on a book and a furry diary to demonstrate gravity vs friction.
Newton’s second law of motion:
R – We tell papa to put acceleration on long drives.
R – We need to run and jump when we need to cross two tiles on floor.
R – I can move the chair, didi can move the table and all of us need to push the bed hard to move it.
My younger one loves competitive games. The elder one decided to show her if magnets can apply more force than gravity. They spent good amount of time hunting for stronger magnets to pull more metal balls in a row.
Newton’s third law of motion:
R – We push floor to jump high.
R – Birds push air to fly.
R – We push water to swim.
R – Heavy birds with smaller wings can’t fly like ostrich and penguins.
Me – Why can’t a peacock fly? It has big wings.
R – Those wings are for dancing. It should make a parachute using its wings.
I have no doubt that my daughter is clear with the concepts without having to sit with her. What I liked the most was the author’s way of communicating that few words in physics can be too long to pronounce or memorize but we just can’t change their names.
I am definitely getting more books from the Smartypants series for my curious kids. . You can read Achira’s review of GRAVITY here, and Amardeep’s review of EVOLUTION here.
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CLICK & BUY NOW!Disclaimer: Mona and her daughters are part of the #kbcReviewerSquad and received this book as a review copy from the publisher through kbc.
