About the Holiday

Today and tomorrow I will be celebrating Read a New Book Month with books that present the excitement and wonder of science through familiar activities and objects. Introducing young children to the way things work in nature and through engineering helps them make sense of what they see and experience in their everyday life. Books like these make great gifts not only for science buffs but for all kids!

Physics Animated

Written by Tyler Jorden | Illustrated by Elsa Martins

From that moment when Isaac Newton was hit on the head by a falling apple, people have been fascinated with physics. In this clever and interactive board book, young readers can learn about Newton’s three laws of physics through wheels to spin, tabs to pull, and elements to push that introduce “big words” and other vocabulary that budding scientists will be proud to learn. Examples for each law come straight from a child’s day of play or experience to make them easily understood. Children will also be able to apply the knowledge they gain within these pages to other activities they perform every day.

Readers meet Isaac Newton as “a man who liked to watch the world around him. He noticed that everything could be explained by three simple laws.” While Newton ponders, he gazes out of a window where children can move a wheel to make birds fly in the air and fish swim in a lake. Newton’s first law—inertia—is introduced with a simple sentence that “an object will stay still unless something pushes or pulls on it.” Accompanying this explanation is an image of a boy kicking a ball to his dog. A wheel allows children to move the ball from the boy to the dog.

Image copyright Elsa Martins, 2019, text copyright Tyler Jorden, 2019. Courtesy of Familius.

The second part of the law of inertia, which states that an object in motion will keep moving until something stops it, is demonstrated through a tab that moves a sliding sled with two little girls aboard into a fluffy snowbank. For Newton’s second law—force = mass x acceleration—kids help out a bicycle rider, and the force of gravity is accomplished as kids pull a dropped ice-cream scoop toward the ground.

How can we stand firmly on the floor or ground? That question is answered by Newton’s third law that states “when you push on something, it pushes back just as much.” So when we stand on the floor, “our feet push on the floor, and the floor pushes back on us.” Examples of this law are buoyancy, centrifugal force (for which readers push the wheel to send two roller coaster riders around the loop-de-loop), centripetal force (demonstrated with a swing that kids can push back and forth), lift, and thrust. Thrust is depicted with a rocket ship blasting off into space. As readers pull up on the tab to launch the rocket, they’re sure to feel their own scientific understanding soar.

Image copyright Elsa Martins, 2019, text copyright Tyler Jorden, 2019. Courtesy of Familius.

Tyler Jorden’s easy-to-understand definitions of Newton’s laws are just right for readers learning vocabulary that will help them to recognize their own activities as they play and work around the house as well as to comprehend these scientific concepts when they get to school. When terms and ideas like these are introduced at an early age, they can become as familiar as actions, such as push, pull, drop, and slide, that they describe. Jorden’s pages give adults excellent examples to begin discussions and of these concepts that can lead to fun, hands-on learning.

Elsa Martins’ colorful interactive illustrations take kids out to the park, a snow-covered hill, a bike trail, a schoolyard, a lake, an amusement park, and into the sky where they can make the natural forces and Newton’s laws work for themselves. Martins’ choices of images allow for in-depth discussions as readers pull and push the wheels and tabs. For instance, the biker who accompanies Newton’s second law can “pedal” faster or slower depending on how quickly the tab is pulled, letting kids and adults talk about things such as the rate of pedaling, if the rider was carrying a heavy backpack, and if the biker was going up or down a hill. The adorable children on each page make for fun friends to join on this scientific exploration.

As enjoyable and entertaining as it is educational, Physics Animated will get young readers excited about learning and make them proud to know about such “grown-up” topics. (They even get to drop that apple on Isaac Newton’s head!) Sure to spark lots of experiments, the book would be a wonderful addition to home, classroom, and public library collections. 

Ages 4 – 7

Familius, 2019 | ISBN 978-1641701327

To learn more about Elsa Martins and view a portfolio of her art, visit her website.

Read a New Book Month with STEM Activity

Get Moving with Newton’s Laws! Word Search Puzzle

Find the seventeen words associated with Isaac Newton’s Three Laws of Motion in this printable word search puzzle.

Get Moving with Newton’s Laws! Puzzle | Get Moving with Newton’s Laws! Solution

You can find Physics Animated at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | IndieBound

Picture Book Review