Cover Image: Hack Your Kitchen

Hack Your Kitchen

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Member Reviews

A few simple science experiments for your kids. If wanting them to get a start or some interest in science in general, these can be some fun for them.
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Thank you for the opportunity to review this instructional cookbook / household manual. I really enjoyed most of what this book had to offer. Particularly, I think this would make a great read (or gift) to someone starting off as a homeowner or renter
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Hack Your Kitchen: Discover a World of Food Fun with Science Buddies by Niki Ahrens is a children's nonfiction book currently scheduled for release on February 2 2021. Young scientists will learn all about many different scientific principles and properties using everyday tools and ingredients from their own kitchens! Make a lemon volcano, flour craters, edible paper, and more with these hands-on science projects.

Hack Your Kitchen is a well written and organized book. I liked that the items needed for the experiments, and the note that parental supervision or actions for certain things might be important right in the beginning of the book- so there are no surprises of that nature in the midst of picking a project. Equally important, at the end of the book a reminder to leave the kitchen as you found it, and resources for further reading and experimentation are included. The experiments are short and simple, with good pictures and clear instructions. I like that many resulted in edible results, like the slushy, ice cream, and meringue. I also like that the tools and ingredients for each activity are in most homes, or easily found if not currently in the pantry or junk drawer. I think the book is easy to read and follow, accessible to kids and  their adults that might be helping or supervising. I think this book could be helpful for keeping kids engaged and learning while so many are deep into home school or remote learning- and might need a little something extra to stay invested or engaged. I think some teachers and/or parents could use it for inspiration. In fact, I think my kids and I might be giving the baked ice cream a go sooner rather than later.
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The book is great - full color step by step instructions for fun food based experiments for kids. Unfortunately, it it only a little over 30 pages long and just has 8 experiments. If it were longer I would definitely be rating higher because the info in there is quality. I just think kids could work through this pretty quickly and be done with it.
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Hack Your Kitchen is a new food science tutorial and recipe guide in the Science Buddies series for young readers. Due out 2nd Feb 2021 from Lerner, it's 32 pages and will be available hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. All formats have QR code access to extra material including tutorial videos, short articles, and other multimedia content.

This is an engaging and well written guide for young readers (~7-11 years) containing 8 kitchen science experiments illustrating basic materials science and chemistry activities. Each of the tutorials contains safety instructions, tips for adult helpers, tools and supplies, and step by step instructions. The layouts are logical and thought out, with questions for each student to answer themselves. The photography throughout as well as the graphics are clear and colorful. The extra content is well designed and leads to additional questions/answers for further exploration. The book itself is admittedly very short, but the extra online material fleshes the book out fairly well. The book includes a very short glossary and links list for further reading. The choice of human models in the book (while clearly consciously made with editorial considerations in mind) are refreshingly representative and include both boys and girls of a variety of ethnicities. Representation is important at all ages, and I like to see it in STEM books.

This would make a superlative selection for gift giving, home/remote e-schooling science lessons, classroom library, makers' groups, and similar. 

Four stars. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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Here are some fun and educational projects to work on with kids in the kitchen.  I especially liked the lemon volcano and the edible paper.  This is a great way to spend time with the kids and teach them something as well.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley.  My review is optional.
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I like Hack Your Kitchen a lot and can see how this would appeal to teachers, parents, and budding scientists.  I plan to write about Hack Your Kitchen on my blog later this month (December 2020).
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I had maybe too high of expectations for the amount of experiments that would be included in this book. The color photographs were wonderful in accompanying each discription. However, some of the experiments didnt really hold that wow factor for me or one that I know my son would have either. The book also seemed to end when I wanted to search further for more options of experiments. 

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for this free digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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Such a fun book. This one is filled with great kitchen experiments that kids will find a lot of fun. Some of these are even edible like a recipe for rock candy. Great suggestion for Christmas or Library shelves. Librarians in charge of makerspace programs should take notice of this book.
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#HackYourKitchen #NetGalley

Special thanks to NetGalley and Lerner publishing group for providing me with ARC.

I loved this book so much, science and cooking is perfect combination in the kitchen theses days, it made cooking so easy and save a lot of time that we need.
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Science and food, what could be better. Kids, with adult supervision, create edible science projects. Photographs of diverse families walk you through each step. The science is explained clearly, the instructions are clear, the end results look appealing. This is a must-have for all libraries.
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Simple and engaging food experiments for elementary-aged scientists! This colorful book does a great job of walking kids through the steps of the experiment, explaining the science behind it, and reminding them to be safe and responsible in the kitchen. A great way to encourage STEAM activity with everyday items, and all activities I want to try myself!
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Fun science experiments in the kitchen! I will definitely be using this book for my programs, and with my children.
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This book is from the Science Buddies organisation that provides science resources for parents and teachers. With just 10 experiments, it's not entirely clear what age group this is aimed at and certainly some of the experiments require adult supervision. It's a shame to see one experiment using bendable straws which are being phased out. It will be fun to try out some of the experiments - a blue erupting volcano from a lemon for example!
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The title had me thinking this children's book would be about cooking, but it's really just science activities that mostly require on things you can find in your kitchen. There are 8 experiments and they're simple to do -- make a volcano with a lemon and baking soda, make craters by dropping objects in flour, make edible paper with rice flour (one of my favorites), make a really long straw by connecting plastic straws, make colorful "walking water" with paper towels, make a slushy by shaking juice with frozen salt water, make baked ice cream (baked Alaska) and make rock candy. Each one is well illustrated with colorful images that easily show the steps. Each one also tells the science behind the results, which I appreciate. In all, it's a fun and well illustrated book that's easy to replicate, though I wish there were more experiments.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
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Let's begin with the things I liked about this book. None of the experiments were overly complicated; the pictures and instructions were very clear, and I felt like the intended age group would be able to clearly understand them. There were a couple of experiments, like the lemon volcano, that would be great for STEM programs at the library. Now for what I didn't care as much for, the book is very short. I know it's a children's book but still, there are only 8 experiments and some of them, like the edible paper, require ingredients that most people are not going to have lying around the house (brown rice flour). I would still recommend the book to a patron who was looking for easy science experiments but I would probably feel the need to find them something else to go along with it.
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This is a very short book, there is only 8 experiments to do with your kids in it. The experiments are good, particularly the volcano and edible paper one, this last one I had never seen. They are very well presented with great picture-by-picture presentation. You really want to do them with the kids, they are very easy to manage, clear to understand and children are excited about the whole process, There is a little paragraph about what science each experiment teaches, which is nice, but I would have liked a little more on that. 
While what is there is very high quality, the book still feels a little lacking, I think it could have done with more experiments.
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Well illustrated little book of science fun in the kitchen. Eight projects are well explained and illustrated. Great ideas for young kids. Wish there were more activities.
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This is a fun kids science book to do in the kitchen. The pages are very colorful, full of photos and it looks very fun for the little ones. There are only 8 projects and it's a small book with only about 30 pages but you could do one project a day. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review
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This book was a fun guide to different experiments to try at home. This book has lots fun things to try and I can't wait to do them. I also have never done a lemon volcano which seems wild!

THank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with and arc for an honest review.
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