Matter, Matter Everywhere by Stephen M. Tomeck published by National Geographic
Society ISBN: 0-7922-8880-7
Matter, Matter
Everywhere describes matter
and its properties in a way
fourth graders can
understand. The book
describes how matter is all
around us, in three different
states; solid, liquid, and gas.
Each state either does or
does not have a definite
shape or takes up a definite
amount of space. The book
discusses the concept of
density (which is the amount
of matter in a certain amount
of space) and how to measure
density by its mass and
volume. The concept of
atoms is introduced in
chapter two. The name atom
was proposed by Democritus,
a Greek philosopher in 400
BC. Later in the early 1800's,
an English teacher named
Dalton explained more about atoms by defining an element and a compound. As more
and more elements were discovered, there was no organization on where the
elements would go. Dalton solved this by organizing them by their weight. Later, a
chemist named Demitri Mendeleyev published the periodic table that sorted elements
by their properties and mass. The last chapter discusses the changes of matter; either
a physical or a chemical change. Briefly, the book states that a physical change is when
matter changes from one form to another while a chemical change happens when a
new substance is being formed.
Personally, I enjoyed this book and would definitely use it in the classroom. The content
was very informative, yet in a very fun fashion. The graphics were very colorful and catchy, yet
still realistic. Each page had an illustration that related to the topic on that page. Each
vocabulary word was in bold, which would really benefit young readers. The glossary in the
back was a helpful aspect of the book. The most appealing part of the book was the different
experiments and fun facts on the side of each page. Yvette Toubia, ESU Elementary
Education Student