by Chris Barton
Illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat
5 stars
A shiny new read to add some sparkle to your day. While I don’t personally care much for glitter, I found learning about it in this book fascinating. Great blend of information, engagement, and humor.
The illustrations are gorgeous. They deliver on all the sparkliness sans the actual glitter (love the use of glitter lookalike on the jacket) and nicely portray related scientific concepts.
The book explains what makes glitter so shiny, a short history of materials and uses, how modern glitter came about, the science of why it gets everywhere, and some environmental and ethical considerations and alternatives.
A great blending of history, science, and activism.
The Author’s Note at the end demonstrates how much work goes into writing a nonfiction book (field visits, research, interviews, eating tasty glittery treats, etc.) and some considerations about fact-checking. A bonus lesson for older kids who may be interested in becoming writers or journalists. Also includes a Selected Bibliography of sources for learning more.
Well-written and fun. This is a great book for showing how fun reading nonfiction can be.