Introducing the Periodic Table

Gr 5–8—The chapters in this introduction to the periodic table of elements are brief, mostly two pages in length, with colorful photos and digitally rendered drawings on every page. However, despite the highly visual format, the writing is stiff at times, and some of the images function as filler. There are captions for the most part, but some of the pictures would benefit from a more detailed explanation. A couple of quizzes are included, one of which invites readers to match elements to their letter symbols. While the focus of this text is the periodic table, an actual image of it does not appear until almost halfway through the book. Readers wanting a visual introduction to the elements would be better served by Adrian Dingle's The Periodic Table: Elements with Style! (Kingfisher, 2010) or Theodore Gray's The Elements (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2010).—Maren Ostergard, King County Library System, Issaquah, WA