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Rating: 
Summary: Every Home Should Have This Book
Review: and I truly mean this. For adults, adolesents and kids as young as two years old, this is a great resource and highly enjoyable book for all ages. My 3 year old LOVES it, my 5 year old LOVES it, and when flipping through it with them together as a bedtime book, I almost always wind up reading and adding to my own knowledge-base myself. This is a book that you would expect to retail for $50 and at this Amazon price, it is a real deal.
Rating: 
Summary: The Fragility of Science
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: And this is a science book?!
Review: 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.
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Summary: Excellent combination of graphical and textual learning
Review: 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.
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Summary: Typos
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: And this is a science book?!
Review: This book has a very good section on nonbiological science, but when it gets to the biology, it has, in my opinion, a very wrong premise. It assumes macroevolution is a biological fact, when it is, in fact, quite the opposite. This premise saturates the book, and in doing so, biological facts do not fit together nicely at all. Microevolution has been proven by science to be a true, and normal, scientific occurence, but macroevolution, as presented in this book, is a mixture of very good imaginations (as manifested by their colorful illustrations), outdated theories,and a few observations twisted to fit their outlook on science. But as to the section on the non-living aspects of science, I commend this book. This part is unslanted and it has helped me understand many matters of science. Its illustrations make it voluminously easier to understand.
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Summary: Great Intoduction to Science for Children
Review: This is a book well suited to give a overview of a wide range of scientific topics. It may not be the end all as a scientific reference, but will spark your child's interest and imagination about science. After reading this book, your child will want to go on to more detailed books about their specific areas of interest.
The book is organized into chapters of broad topics such as Matter, Reactions, Materials, Electricity, Sound and Light, Weather, Space, Living things, etc. The breadth of subjects is a welcome change. The school curriculum of elementary children tends to be patchy, and this book fills in many gaps that they may not even touch on in Science Class.
Each page is filled with colorful and attention grabbing illustrations. There is a short synopsis of the subtopic and then the page is filled with factoids which match the attention span of children this age.
My son enjoyed this book immensely and it was his favorite for two years. It was a great nightime "story" book.
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Summary: Compact Visual Encyclopedia
Review: This is a kid-size book even adults will love. It is small enough to toss in your purse or put in your pocket. There are over 1,000 full-color photographs, diagrams, charts and cutaway artworks. The information is organized into four key sections and packed with scientific facts, figures and statistics. This book explains the basic concepts of "matter," "Kinetic Theory," "atoms," "elements (including the Periodic Table)", "Metals" and much more. A Timeline of Scientific discoveries is fun to read and lists discoveries up to 1995. The Geography section will help children understand the planet more and it explains volcanoes, earthquakes, rocks, minerals, mountains, rivers, lakes, climate and weather. The Gemstone section was quite pretty with rubies, emeralds and turquoise in their natural state. The section on animals gives cutaway pictures that show the insides of each animal so children can understand how a cow chews its cud or how other animals digest their food. How does a whale trap krill in its mouth? This type of information was very interesting. All I have to say is..."If God didn't design and create our wonderful world, I am not sure who did!" This book will give a child a basic understanding of main concepts, but some parents might want to consider explaining their own views about evolution and creation. "All Men by Nature Desire To Know." -Aristotle, a quote found in: The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee The inquisitive soul will enjoy reading this book!
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