Fun Science: A Guide to Life, the Universe and Why Science Is So Awesome

Gr 6 Up—Young British YouTuber McDonnell has moved into the world of publishing, tackling astronomy, biology, chemistry, and physics in a conversational style. Cartoonlike illustrations accompany most pages, anthropomorphizing, for example, different types of dwarf and supergiant stars with mustaches, sunglasses, grins, and grimaces. McDonnell inserts his own thoughts and asides into the text and keeps it light with hashtags such as #notallbacteria (in reference to "good" vs. harmful bacteria). Yet the humorous tone in no way takes away from the science as major and complex topics (string theory) are well covered. Clearly, McDonnell knows his stuff, and much of the content is quite comprehensive. However, the back matter is rather limited. As the author states in the introduction, he's not a scientist but a scientific communicator, mentioning a great scientific communicator of the 20th century, Carl Sagan.