Cats React to Science Facts; Izzi Howell

Given the popularity of viral videos featuring cats, it should come as no surprise that they make a rather unexpected appearance in a book filled with science facts. The strangely odd combination is far from a cat-astrophe through as Izzi Howell has worked her magic to create something that will create a buzz about science and will have readers saying, ‘Are you kitten me?’.

Cats may not know a lot about science but they certainly have some thoughts on all manner of science facts. Pancakes are always round because of gravity. Purr-fection! Lemons can be used to create electricity. Holy furballs! Jellyfish practically disappear when they wash up on land. That’s so un-furtunate! Clouds on Uranus smell like rotten eggs. Fur-scinating. Cats reacting to science facts. Claw-some…

If you want easy to digest science facts and have a liking of cats then this is quite possibly the purr-fect non-fiction book. The zany pages feature bite-sized chunks of information, bright artwork and photographs, playful felines and an abundance of cat-themed jokes and puns. Somewhat bizarrely and brilliantly it all makes for an entertaining, engaging and educational read.

A multitude of topics are covered including: the solar system, light, sound, forces, magnets, energy, electricity, plants and states of matter. Within each of these broad topics, specific sub-strands are focused on, for example, sound includes sound waves, the ear, animal hearing and making music. Energy includes fossil fuels, global warming and green energy. States of matter includes solids, liquids, gases, changing states and reversible and irreversible change. Rounding things off is a ‘Claw-ssary’ of key scientific words and a helpful ‘Kitten-dex’ so you can jump to your favourite science topics.

An assortment of felines, that range from the friendly to the rather frightening, use the React-o-Meter to judge if the facts are: Wow! or No Way! or OMG! or Gross! or Mind-blowing! The cats appear on every page and often in rather amusing places; sitting atop an aeroplane, piloting an alien spaceship, playing in a band - obviously called the Fur Fighters, sunbathing on a deck chair, floating in a bucket towards an iceberg. As the science facts get shared the cats frequently provide funny comments. One declares a love for fur-ssil fuels, another wonders why mice aren’t mog-netic, one claims to be paw-fully photogenic and another finds global warming a-paw-ling. If you can think of a science pun based around a cat, then you’ll probably find it somewhere within these pages.

A science read with plenty of catt-itude. This is one of those books that really feels like it shouldn’t work but somehow it really does. If it takes a few pictures of felines and some paw-some cat based humour to get kids interested in science then that has to be a good thing!

Recommended for 7+.