Spheres by Nathan Olsen

Spheres by Nathan Olson is an informational book that describes the properties of spheres and gives examples of spheres that relate to the everyday lives of children. It is one in a series of books on geometric shapes that make learning about these concepts fun for kids.

One of the things I love most about is the color used in the book, as well as the pictures. The color of the book is what first drew my eye to it, and throughout the book there is abundant use of bright, attention grabbing colors (perfect for children). The pictures are not drawn illustrations, but crisp, sharp, full page photos of various common types of spheres, as well as children playing with different types of spheres. The types of spheres photographed are every color of the rainbow, including gumballs, bouncy balls, grapes, an avacado pit, balls you play in, marbles, and balls of colorful yarn. These colorful spheres depicted in the book add and extra splash of color for an even more eye-catching display. The bright colors gave me a feeling of cheerfulness as I read about all the different kinds of spheres.

I also enjoyed that the book talked about how spheres are in our everyday surroundings and I can relate to seeing these spheres in my environment. Many of the examples given remind me of my childhood, especially the bouncy balls, gumballs, bubbles, snowballs, marbles, balls you play in, and the soccer ball. Because I connected with using these everyday spheres in my childhood, I suspect that young children will also connect more readily with the concept of learning about spheres and that this connection to their world will make learning about spheres more meaningful and exciting. I also connected to the big picture ideas of the world and nature. By including the earth, the moon, fruit, plants and animals that all contain spheres in someway, the book gives that extra connection to the world around us that could motivate the reader to look for other spheres in their environment.

One thing that really caught my attention about this book was the fun facts section, the glossary and the craft section. The fun facts section extends the knowledge even further to give a broader scope of what a sphere actually is. I found that even though I knew what spheres were, the fun facts section explained examples of spheres that I would not normally think about everyday, which makes this section great for expanding your knowledge and way of thinking about common objects. The glossary was also very informative as it gave definitions of words that might not be common to young children, accompanied by how to pronounce the word. I think that this is a very important aspect of an information book because I remember as a child sometimes not knowing certain words in a book and finding glossaries very helpful for broadening my understanding of the concept. 

The book also contains a section that teaches you how to make your own sphere craft. I used to love making crafts as a child and still do, so this section really appealed to me. I believe that creativity is so important and I personally get a lot more out of a project or concept if I make use of my creativity to construct my own knowledge. When I am encouraged to be creative, I also have more fun doing a project and I am able to take pride in what I've completed because it shows a little bit of my personality. The craft section of this book would an excellent way to encourage children to be creative so that they can connect further to the topic of spheres and have some fun while they are learning.