Scholastic Discover More: The Elements
It’s amazing what a bold font choice can do. Each chapter announces itself with huge text spread across two pages, and just like that, you perk up, wondering if this will outshine your typical nonfiction book about the elements. Indeed it does. Filling the oversize pages with eye-popping photos, sidebars, and factoids coming at you every which way, this entry in the three-tiered Discover More series (this volume is for the expert readers tier) is like a trip to a museum—every reader will find at least a few things worth poring over. Each well-trod topic and organizational device receives a fresh, revitalized consideration. Examples: the table of elements is followed by a photographic version, impressive numbers are stretched for all they’re worth across page bottoms, and so on. Best of all, a unique code allows downloading of a digital companion volume of similarly interesting content. Grades 7-10. --Daniel Kraus