Ohio SWON Library Consortium
This book uses humor in both text and pictures to teach the reader basic chemistry concepts. The reference aids, bold headings, captions and diagrams make the book a good reference and teaching tool. The fun text and pictures make it attractive to the child who is just interested in science. A good addition and update to the 500s.
NSTA Science & Children
This is a short book that would be entertaining for the targeted audience of third through sixth grades. It has lots of illustrations and funny captions, which do a good job of elaborating on the science information being presented and making it reader relevant. The short length of the book (32 pages including all the afterword materials like index, glossary, Internet sites, etc) makes it ideal for students who have short attention spans. The presentation does not talk down to students but uses language and humor to entice the reader to continue to read. Consequently they are being introduced to some useful scientific concepts which they will study in depth later in their school careers.
Wrapped In Foil blog
Books in the LOL Physical Science series are full of cartoons, jokes and funny asides. That doesn’t mean the science is less than serious, however. The concepts are there, the vocabulary is there, and the explanations are clear. This book is perfectly tailored for reluctant readers. . . .The Solid Truth about Matter is a good, solid book to have on hand for science units.
School Library Journal
Gr 5–8—This series operates on the premise that the way to get children interested in science is to pepper the text with feeble bathroom jokes and other lame attempts at humor. None of the titles is immune. It is difficult to determine what "Get your mind out of the toilet. This is isn't about poop." does to help explain Newton's second law of motion, or why the section in Magnetism titled "Gotta Go" needs "You thought about pee, didn't you?" as an aside. While some of the cartoon illustrations, photos, and diagrams do help clarify the texts, others are totally pointless. For example, a caption for a photo of a strange-looking machine raising a car in Forces reads: "We really have no idea what this picture is about. It's just really cool, so we added it here." All of the information presented is valid, but the approach is condescending.
