School Library Journal (Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2014)

K-Gr 2 Light is not an easy concept to convey on a beginning-to-read level, but Pfeffer does a credible job of incorporating just the right amount of detail for these readers. She relates the science concepts she's introducing to scenarios that are in the everyday experience of young children; for example, when explaining lumens, or the units used to quantify brightness, she first discusses how temperature and length are measured. Readers will also enjoy the two easy experiments appended at the end. The colorful illustrations, created with pen and ink, watercolor, liquid acrylic, pencils, and pastels and which include children of diverse races, extend the text well and are marked by several appealing details, such as costumed children carrying glow sticks at Halloween and a glowing octopus. Another book in this series, Franklyn M. Branley's Day Light, Night Light: Where Light Comes From (HarperCollins, 1998), presents the concept of reflective light even more clearly than this title, but Pfeffer's text is shorter and features much more white space on each page, making it especially attractive for beginning readers. Maralita L. Freeny, District of Columbia Public Library

ALA Booklist

A companion book to Pfeffer's Sounds All Around (1999), this simply written volume introduces the properties of light, particularly sunlight. Meisel's amiable ink drawings, brightened with colorful washes, help make the concepts accessible to a young audience. Topics range from the simple, such as examples of bioluminescence, to the complex, like how light waves bouncing off objects are perceived by the eye and the brain as vision (a process introduced here but not fully explained). After discussing the sun's light as "waves of electromagnetic radiation, a kind of energy that travels through space," the text compares the speed of light to that of cars, planes, and sound waves, while a double-page illustration makes the comparisons more real. An appended hands-on section presents two simple science experiments and an activity related to shadows. An attractive addition to the dependable Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This addition to the Let-s-Read-And-Find-Out Science series explores light-what it is, how it moves, how humans measure it, and how it allows us to see. In plainspoken prose, Pfeffer breaks down complex ideas to make them readily comprehensible (-You see a cat because light waves reflect off the cat to your eyes-), while introducing terms like electromagnetic radiation, lumens, and octillion-as in the 35 octillion lumens the sun puts out. Meisel-s active cartoon scenes contribute to the book-s accessibility and pull in some surprising parallels (a giant glowing octopus appears beside trick-or-treaters carrying glow sticks, both examples of artificial light). It-s a smart introduction to the topic, and a handful of concluding experiments encourage further investigation. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)

Horn Book (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

This strong series entry introduces youngsters to light: where it comes from, how fast it travels, and how it enables us to see. The prose is generally lively, but Pfeffer is all business when it comes to scientific explanations. Lighthearted paintings, outlined in pen and ink, add humor but never distract from the text. Three simple experiments are appended.