Make this: Building, thinking, and tinkering projects for the amazing maker in you by Ella Schwartz, photographs by Matthew Rakola

National Geographic has plenty of activity books, many of them including science projects, but this book takes a slightly different approach that opens it up to a whole new audience.

After an introduction, explaining the use and purpose of maker spaces and suggestions for using the book, it dives into six chapters covering materials, systems, optics, energy, acoustics, forces, and motion. The book ends with an afterword, some short stories of how scientists use these skills in the field, and photo and illustration credits.

Each chapter starts with a section of facts and information, includes three to four things to make, and then has a series of situations or logic puzzles to solve using the information you've learned and practiced. Each project has step-by-step instructions, a complete list of materials, difficulty rating, whether or not an adult is needed (and how many people are needed to do the project), and an explanation of what's happening.

Projects range from making a kaleidoscope to a string phone, experiments with ice to making a rocket with a straw. Situations to solve include imagining you are a field biologist in Africa - how will you get close enough to photograph lions?, creating a seatbelt for your dog, and figuring out how big to make a hole in the ice to study seals in Lake Baikal.

This book is a great resource for teachers, librarians, and parents; each chapter could easily be expanded into a series of lessons on the subject. It encourages kids to use their minds and think out problems without any immediate result or reward. It uses simple items and clear instructions to get kids involved in hands-on experimentation and then think beyond what they've made or tried to the wider applications.

Verdict: This is a must-have for schools and libraries and would make a great gift for a science-minded kid as well. I plan to keep the review copy in my professional collection for reference and purchase a library-bound copy for circulation. Highly recommended.

ISBN: 9781426333248; Published February 2019 by National Geographic; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library; Purchased additional copy for the library