US UK
Why is Snot Green? And Other Extremely Important Questions (and Answers)
by Glenn Murphy
Roaring Brook Press, Flashpoint, 2009 (US printing, UK, 2007) MacMillan
ISBN #978-1-59643-500-1
NF paperback grades 4-7
How big is the universe?
Big. Really big. Crazy big. Billions of times bigger than the biggest thing you can imagine.
The book goes on to say: If you drove a tunneling car straight through the middle [of the Earth], you’d get to the other side in about 5 1/2 days, going nonstop at an average highway speeof 60 mph.
I’ll admit it. This title alone made me pick up the book. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I looked at the first page and “The Lost in Space” chapter got me started reading. No snot here and I still couldn’t put it down! Formatted in a conversational question and answer style, the questions read like the ones sharp-witted kids keep asking when they go on and on. The answers come in a witty, knowledgeable tone, as if a big brother or sister were answering them, except for providing the high quality scientific answers. By the time I got to the “Why is snot green” question, I was already hooked.
Then came the belly laughs. Gas always provides humor and this time was no different. I stopped reading to eat lunch and my 23 year old strolled by, picked up the book, and erupted into laughter, reading the page where I had stopped at this question” “Where does diarrhea come from?”
While a bit graphic in the middle section, the book provides highly accurate, kid-friendly answers to numerous questions and readable explanations concerning physical, earth, and life science. Questions include information about space, gravity, black holes, and planets; hurricanes, tornadoes, tides, and water currents; burps, digestion, and gas; viruses, animals, robotics, and environment; and solar power, lasers, and schools of the future.
This fun-to-read book invites kids to learn more and dig deeper, and it’s one that they’ll remember, for sure. Glenn Murphy has written other books on similar topics in this style.
Activity 1
Read about colorblindness on pages 146-148. Then use this online test to check yourself.
Look at colors as if you had different versions of colorblindness here.
Activity 2
Research the different types of colorblindness to learn more about this genetic condition.
Other books along this same theme:
Oh, Yuck!: The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty by Joy Masoff
How Loud Can You Burp? by Glen Murphy
