Book Review: Fairy Science

Fairy Science by Ashley Spires

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting children’s book. It takes the concept of science and applies it to fairies whom have magic. I like the science concepts taught about photosynthesis, fog, gravity, etc. However it could be very confusing to a child to understand that the overall idea is nothing is magic; it just has an explanation we may not know yet. I’m not sure the book conveyed this very well.
I do really like the illustrations and that the glitter on the cover (and fairies in general) are likely to attract the attention of little girls. We certainly need more women in science! Ashley Spires (Canadian author and illustrator) does a good job of keeping the pictures light but contextual.

One caution here for those purchasing this: be sure you know the concepts in the book in advance! For example: they call fog ‘condensate’ which is correct but I could see a child not getting it based on the picture. You’re likely to get asked why gravity works, what is dispersion, and other things referenced in the book. So I’d recommend being prepared to answer some basic questions. For myself prior to reading this cute book to a child I’d brush up on dispersion and maybe condensate to be sure I could easily explain it. Remembering that knowing what something is and answering a child’s specific questions can be very different things!
Another thing to be prepared for is the termination of seeds exercise at the back of the book. You just know many children will want to immediately do it.

Overall this is cute enough. I like the scientific method presented, the use of science words (like hypothesis, method, photosynthesis, etc.). It’s a picture book appropriate for a bit of an older age due to its complexity of words. I’d even buy Fairy Science for as old as a 7-8 year old.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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