nonfiction – Page 21

Caramel reviews Children It’s Time to Meet Your Teeth by Amanda Jones

Caramel had to go to the dentist for a few times this past month and so he has been thinking a bunch about teeth and dentists. As he likes to read about real things, he decided to review a book about teeth and dentists for the Book Bunnies blog. Below he shares his thoughts on Children It’s Time to Meet Your Teeth by Amanda Jones. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes.

Sprinkles: So Caramel tell me about this book.

Caramel: It’s kind of weird. Teeth are talking to people and they are giving presents to people and stuff like that.

S: So the book represents the teeth as living characters. Right?

C: Yeah, which is actually kind of weird.

S: Why do you think the author would do that kind of thing? Why do you think the illustrator puts faces on the teeth?

C: So kids like the book perhaps? And maybe you might like your teeth more and take better care of them?

S: Yes, I think that is a good reason. Does it work? Does the book make you think about your teeth more kindly? Does it make you want to take better care of them?

C: Kind of. The book also tells you why you should take better care of your teeth. Tooth decay looks bad and can really hurt. And decayed teeth are called dental caries. You also learn that brushing with brushes with soft bristles is better.

S: Yes, there is a tooth being brushed with a brush with hard bristles and it doesn’t look happy, does it?

C: It looks kind of mad actually. Sad and mad at the same time.

Caramel is reading *Children It’s Time to Meet Your Teeth*.

S: So what else can we say about the book?

C: Every page has a picture. It’s kind of a picture book, all pictures and only some words. And at the end there is a word search puzzle you can do that has a lot of tooth-related words that the book mentioned earlier.

S: So this is a teaching book, right? It’s teaching you something?

C: Yes. The teeth on the front cover look kind of like ghosts!

S: Yes, they kind of do! On the cover we also see that the author Amanda Jones is an R.N. Do you know what that is Caramel?

C: Nope. But let me look it up… Hmm, apparently it means “registered nurse“.

S: Why do you think the publisher put the author’s credentials on the front cover? That is, why do you think they wanted the reader to know the author is a nurse?

C: Probably a nurse would know more about our teeth and health stuff than random people?

S: Yes, exactly. They are trying to tell us that the author is knowledgeable, an expert in the health field. Does that make the information in the book sound more convincing?

C: Yep.

S: So let us wrap this up. What’s the last thing you want to say?

C: Good bye! And don’t forget to brush your teeth! And stay tuned for more reviews from the Book Bunnies!

Caramel enjoyed learning more about teeth in Amanda Jones' Children It's Time to Meet Your Teeth. — Caramel enjoyed learning more about teeth in Amanda Jones’ *Children It’s Time to Meet Your Teeth*.

Marshmallow reviews Make Your Own Optical Illusions by Clive Gifford and Rob Ives

This week Marshmallow reviews a neat activity book written by Clive Gifford (text) and Rob Ives (paper engineering): Make Your Own Optical Illusions: 50 Hands-On Models and Experiment to Make and Do.

Marshmallow reviews Make Your Own Optical Illusions: 50 Hands-On Models and Experiment to Make and Do by Clive Gifford and Rob Ives. — Marshmallow reviews *Make Your Own Optical Illusions: 50 Hands-On Models and Experiment to Make and Do* by Clive Gifford and Rob Ives.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like books that are about optical illusions and how they work, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Overview: This book is about optical illusions and what makes them so convincing that they fool your brain and eyes in to thinking that something looks different than it actually is.

There is a large variety of optical illusions in the book. At the beginning we learn about literal illusions, cognitive illusions, and physiological illusions.

“Literal illusions simply use one type of object to trick your brain into thinking it is viewing a different object or scene. Cognitive illusions occur because of the way your brain judges and decides on the information sent to it by the eyes. Physiological illusions are designed to exploit the limits of your body and vision system.”

This page from Arizona State University, written by Abigail Howell, explains the difference between these three, in case you want to learn more. There are also neat examples of each in the book.

One of my favorite optical illusions in the book is a physiological illusion called Afterimages. This is where you stare at an image, for example a black light bulb, and then you look at a piece of paper that is white and then you see a glowing light bulb that looks like the light bulb you saw in the book but now the bulb you see is glowing! The reason that this happens is because, according to the book, your special light-detecting cells get tired after staring at an image for a long time, and they send a weak signal so that your brain reads it as the opposite color that the image actually is, thus making the light bulb look like it is glowing.

Marshmallow is reading up on afterimages, a special kind of physiological illusion.

The book has a total of 64 colorful pages of text and examples of illusions. Then there are twenty pages in the back that have cardboard cutouts. You can “press them out” and they come out easily, so you can build your own optical illusions, little hand-held thingies that you can use to fool or trick your brain and eyes into thinking in strange ways. Some of these hands-on projects are things that you spin and then you see a person running. Some of the papers that you can press out are one that are to help you see why one of the optical illusions work.

Marshmallow is proudly showing one of the optical illusion toys she made using the cutouts from Make Your Own Optical Illusions: 50 Hands-On Models and Experiment to Make and Do. — Marshmallow is proudly showing one of the optical illusion toys she made using the cutouts from *Make Your Own Optical Illusions: 50 Hands-On Models and Experiment to Make and Do.*

Marshmallow’s Review: This is a great book which contains many great optical illusions that will definitely fool you. Some are optical illusions that you can build, and some are ones that make your eyes see two images in one picture. The explanations given to explain what is happening in your brain when you get fooled are expertly written so that anyone can understand why you see something that is not on the page.

The authors, Rob Ives and Clive Gifford, have cooked up some great illusions that are really interesting. When these optical illusions are mixed together, they make a mind-boggling illusion book.

This is a hands-on book that includes projects that you can put together by yourself and then amaze your mind. I have only made some of the projects at this point and I am excited to make some more.

Overall Make Your Own Optical Illusions is a great book for all bunnies, especially those who like to play with their minds and hands (or paws?).

Marshmallow’s rating: 95%

Marshmallow rates Make Your Own Optical Illusions: 50 Hands-On Models and Experiment to Make and Do by Clive Gifford and Rob Ives 95%. — Marshmallow rates *Make Your Own Optical Illusions: 50 Hands-On Models and Experiment to Make and Do* by Clive Gifford and Rob Ives 95%.

Marshmallow reviews Rabbits for Dummies by Audrey Pavia

Marshmallow has been thinking a lot about bunnies lately. So she borrowed a For Dummies book from the home library: Rabbits for Dummies by Audrey Pavia. Below she writes about her thoughts on this book, her first review of a non-fiction book.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like books about taking care of pets, or if you love rabbits (like I do!), then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Summary: This is a non-fiction book. It contains many facts about rabbits. It tells the reader how to litter box train a rabbit, how to clip the nails of a pet rabbit, and many more tidbits of information. It has a wide variety of facts.

The book contains nineteen chapters. My favorites are Chapters 10 (Reading Your Rabbit) and 11 (Putting Boxing Gloves on Your Rabbit: Training). These chapters are about how to understand a rabbit’s behavior (Reading Your Rabbit) and how to train your rabbit (Putting Boxing Gloves on Your Rabbit)

The nineteen chapters of the book are organized into five parts. My favorite part is Part 1 Bringing on the Bunny Basics. I like this part because it teaches you about the many different breeds of rabbits.

In the introduction the author lists the people who could like this book:

This book is for you if you:
* Want a rabbit.
* Think rabbits are cool and want to know more about them.
* Have a rabbit and are considering getting another.
* Own a rabbit and are considering breeding or showing it.
* Have a rabbit (or two) and want to expand your knowledge on how to care for these pets.

Marshmallow’s Review: The book Rabbits for Dummies is about how to take care of rabbits. It is a very good book for rabbits (like me!) and rabbit lovers. Reading it can really help a person learn about rabbits.

The book has pictures that help describe the book contents. Many are distributed in the text, but there is a small section in the middle of the book made up entirely of color photos, printed on higher quality paper.

Marshmallow is pointing at a Holland lop rabbit, one of her favorites.

At the beginning of each part, there is a comic that is about the contents of that part. These are all pretty hilarious. I laughed out loud while reading some of them.

At the beginning of each part is a single comic. Marshmallow's favorite is the one starting Part IV. — At the beginning of each part is a single comic. Marshmallow’s favorite is the one starting Part IV.

Overall this is a very good book that is educational, funny, well-written, and very entertaining. It is sure to help everyone that wants to have a pet bunny. However, be warned: it will certainly make you want a bunny even more than you did before. When she lent me the book, Sprinkles had thought that it would make me realize how much work taking care of a bunny would be, but it seems like this has backfired. I now want a bunny even more!

Marshmallow’s rating: 100%

Marshmallow rates Rabbits for Dummies by Audrey Pavia 100%. — Marshmallow rates *Rabbits for Dummies* by Audrey Pavia 100%.

Caramel reviews Samurai by Louie Stowell

Caramel loves reading books about real things. In previous weeks he reviewed Knights and Castles (Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #2) by Will Osborne and Mary Pope Osborne and The Complete Guide to Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Reptiles by Chris McNab. This week he shares his thoughts on another nonfiction book: Samurai by Louie Stowell. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions as needed.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, what is this book about?

Caramel: It’s about samurai of course!

S: But what is a samurai?

C: Samurai were the noble horseback warriors of old Japan. They fought with swords named katana, and bows and arrows. They had a code of honor called bushido. That means that they followed certain rules. For example, if a samurai was losing in a battle, he would not be captured alive. He used one of his special swords to kill himself. This was called seppuku or hara-kiri.

S: That sounds rough. What else did you learn from this book?

C: Samurai thought the cherry blossom was an important symbol, because at the height of its beauty it would fall to the ground to die. Samurai also had to be willing to sacrifice themselves before they got old. They saw the cherry blossom as a proof that this was the natural way of things.

S: That is kind of romantic. And cherry blossoms are really pretty,. aren’t they?

C: Yes, they are! They are called sakura! They are a very pale pink and they are really beautiful!

S: Did you learn anything else?

C: Yes. Samurai wrote poems and read a lot. They also liked the arts. Most samurai were men, though women of samurai families also learned to fight and some even went to battle.

S: Why are you always speaking of them in the past tense Caramel? Are there no samurai left now?

C: Not exactly. In 1873 the emperor of Japan decided to replace the samurai with a modern army. Today there are no samurai left in Japan but only their descendants.

S: That is a big word Caramel! Do you know what it means?

C: It means relatives and people who came after.

S: Yes, that’s more or less it.

C: Samurai served clan lords, or a shogun, the military leader of Japan. The book tells stories of many wars of many samurai families. Many of them died.

S: So did you enjoy this book Caramel?

C: Yes. It was kind of violent though. Lots of people killing each other and themselves, and lots of death.

S: True. Hmm.. What else can we say about this book?

Caramel shows some of the pictures in Samurai by Louie Stowell. — Caramel shows some of the pictures in *Samurai* by Louie Stowell.

C: There are many pictures in the book. And this is a chapter book. It has seven chapters.

S: Do you have a favorite one?

C: Not really. But I have a least favorite one. The third chapter is called The Scarlet Sea. And it is about two clans of samurai fighting and the losing side dying. It is very sad.

S: Yes, that was a sad story, wasn’t it?

C: Yes.

S: Hmm.. let us end in a more upbeat tone. You also know how to make samurai helmets, right?

C: Yes! Just right for samurai bunnies! You can find some helpful directions here. And below is me wearing a samurai helmet I made!