Help me find my childhood science book

October 19, 2007 12:03 AM

Anyone remember a great kids science book from the late 70's to the mid 80's?

Somewhere between 1974 and 1985(ish) I had a book as a kid. It was a science book, with a bunch of randomly disparate topics and diagrams.

It ranged from a very detailed explanation of the birds and the bees to a bunch of do-it-yourself at home experiments, to a recipe for ginger beer.

One other bit was how to deal with a bug bite by soaking it in water as hot as you can stand to make it stop itching.

I seem to remember the diagrams being hand drawn. I don't remember photos, but that could be a forgotten element on my part.

It was an unusual size. Take a standard textbook, cut some off of the top and slap it on the righthand side (slightly shorter, but slightly longer too. Once again, I was young, so this might be slightly off.

It was a paperback with a thin cardboard cover, and I remember it being blue and white. As a kid it was a big floppy book, which stuck with me..

Any ideas?

posted by Lord_Pall to science & nature (5 comments total)

The Kids Kitchen Takeover? I would love to have a copy of that again.
posted by pieoverdone at 3:11 AM on October 19, 2007

I had Sara Stein's Science Book which I loved and which sounds similar
posted by hydropsyche at 8:16 AM on October 19, 2007

I had (well, still have) the Sara Stein book that hydropsyche is talking about. One thing that always stuck out to me was the photo of a kid with various cuts of meat drawn out on his back in black marker. Which sounds kind of ominous when I write it out. But does that sound familiar?

That book was fantastic.
posted by averyoldworld at 8:55 AM on October 19, 2007

I dug out the Sara Stein book today, and it has a recipe for ginger beer, a detailed explanation of the birds and the bees, and the part about accelerating the histamine reaction with hot water.

The cover has blue letters on a white background, it's floppy, and there are a lot of hand-drawn diagrams, as well as black-and-white photos. It sounds like a lock.
posted by averyoldworld at 3:08 PM on October 21, 2007

Oh man, that Sara Stein Science Book is how I learned about sex for the first time. There was a very vivid description involving swelling and all sorts of things that were simultaneously amazing and horrifying to my 7-year old mind.
posted by nekton at 1:23 PM on October 25, 2007