Your Amazing Senses

The van der Meers have assembled dozens of tricks and games in the form of folding panels, rubber-band constructions, colored glasses and other paper mechanisms, each involving a demonstration of the workings of one of the five senses. The accompanying text describes in unclear and oversimplified terms the biology of the sense organs and the brain. Though the mechanical workings are clever and often fun, they seldom lead to any real insight. Two pages of optical illusions, for example, neglect any explanation of the strange effects: one illustrates the blind spot within each person's visual field, but doesn't mention that it is caused by the spot on the retina where the optic nerve enters, a fact surely both understandable and interesting to this age group. By failing to use these gimmicks as a hook to impress real understanding of human perception, the authors have produced a mildly diverting but ultimately forgettable half hour of tricks. Ages 9-12. (November)