A Drop Of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder
The curious, protean nature of water has fascinated people for ages, and  Walter Wick--the photographer of Scholastic's highly acclaimed I Spy series--is no  exception. Wick is a great admirer and collector of 100-year-old science books where,  according to his afterword, "Even the simplest experiments appeared as if  improbable or impossible things were happening. Intrigued, I recreated some of the  experiments and photographed them with my camera. The results seemed magical, but  not because of any photographic trick; it was only the forces of nature at work. It was  from these explorations that the idea for this book emerged."As you're admiring the "crown" created by a water drop splashing into a  pool, or how many water droplets can fit on the head of a pin (the smallest droplet on the  pin contains more than three trillion water molecules), you'll learn about evaporation,  condensation, snowflakes, how clouds form, and more amazing water tricks. Wick's other  artfully composed photographs include a "wild wave" caused by a brown egg  dropped in a water glass, soap bubbles with a "shimmering liquid skin," a  snowflake at 60 times its actual size, and dew on a spider web. Like many old-fashioned  science books,A Drop of Waterends with a list of simple experiments may lure  the young reader into the world of scientific investigation. Unlike many old science  books, this one also stands on its own as a beautiful, notable collection of photographs.