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Review - Sounds Dreadful - Nick Arnold

Sound is something we take for granted, and Nick Arnold's lively introduction in the Horrible Science series is a great way to open our eyes (or rather ears) to what's going on.

Like many books aimed at younger readers, it's not 100% popular science, as it is too bitty, lacking the narrative flow of true popular science - but this is expected and not too much of a problem. There's also a little less about people than perhaps is desirable - there are few biographical diversions like Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell, but not quite enough putting the science into the context of the people who discovered it.

To offset that, though, there's plenty of putting the science into the everyday context of the reader, which is great, and the copious cartoon illustrations work very well. A couple of quibbles - not only is the explanation of some technical words up front a bit off putting, some of the definitions really don't help a lot. Take harmonics for instance: "All sounds are made up of harmonics. As long as the harmonics are working on the same frequency, things sound OK and keep your music teacher happy. If not, you're left with a very unpleasant noise. Harmonics are the basis of most music." Yes, but what ARE harmonics? It just doesn't say - they could be simply notes, or even small purple bacteria for all this definition tells you.

I also felt that some of the basics don't really come across very well. How sound waves propagate and how sound causes pressure in the ear, for instance. Oh, and though it's fine to have interactive bits, it's really irritating having the answers printed upside down - I don't think this realistically reflects how most people read books.

Don't let these negatives put you off, though. It's fun, informative and comes at sound in a number of different ways (hearing, music, natural world etc.) to open up the subject without being off putting. And that can't be bad.

Reviewed by Jo Reed

Also in hardback, combined with Frightening Light (US version above is this combo edition):

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