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Children's Books - age range 8 to 11*

Review - Climbing the Rainbow and other stories - Carol Arnold

There's nothing gets the message across to children better than stories, and in theory stories that impart a bit of science are a great way to educate, but it's by far the trickiest approach to popular science to pull off. Carol Arnold has published her own collection, Climbing the Rainbow, which aims to give 8 to 11-year-olds some interesting science alongside a story that will keep their attention.

The seven stories in the slim volume cover snowflakes, rainbows, sound, gravity, evolution and more. First the not so good news. The storytelling isn't particularly inspired, and almost every story uses the device of a magic entity coming to life to act as a tutor for the main character, Luke. This is particularly weak in the story set on the moon where we are told, in a matter of fact fashion, that Luke has a friend who lives on the moon, who Luke can visit every four years by, erm, sort of wishing. Hmm.

However, the science is mostly fine (I would rather it didn't say that the rainbow is composed of 7 colours - I often give talks on light to children this age, and they find it easy to grasp that this is a fiction) - and there's no doubt that children would gain some scientific knowledge from the stories, which are illustrated with passable line drawings. I just suspect that this isn't one of those books they would want to hear (or read) again and again.

Only in paperback

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

* Our age range recommendation is an estimated guide, but individual readers outside the range could still enjoy the book!

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Last update 05 June 2007