The mysteries of physics have formed the basis of the most durable childhood games – like swinging a bucket of water around your head, for example, to see how a magic force kept it from spilling a drop. This early, easy book for school-age youngsters taps that fascination. With Simple Machines, Deborah Hodge, a Vancouver curriculum designer, comes indoors after four earlier books in Kids Can’s wildlife series. Her new title is one of three (along with Plants and Solids, Liquids and Gases from the Ontario Science Centre) that launch Kids Can’s new Starting with Science series.

The 13 (the number clearly holds no terrors for budding empiricists) simple experiments here are designed to introduce children to laws of physics behind the rudimentary “machines” underpinning our civilization – such as the lever, pulley, inclined plane, screw, wheel, and axle. With the aid of kitchen equipment and minimal supervision, science is no longer a fusty world of stained test-tubes, wire coils, and rotten-egg smells. The book reflects energy, esthetics, community, and curiosity: it’s strikingly like a Benetton ad, in fact. The kids are gender-balanced and wear cool, casual clothes. No worries about getting them dirty: the humble props – severed milk cartons, disembowelled tin cans – have all been given glossy coats of red, yellow, or blue. Accessorized with colour co-ordinated tape and string, they look like they came straight from Ikea.

A one-page appendix of extensions for parents and teachers is limited by space to the superficial; bright kids can probably think of better ideas. The index, considering that the book has only 32 pages, seems like overkill, but on the other hand provides an opportunity to show kids how one works. And although Boudreau’s gorgeous photos would have us believe the fresh-faced four cook these things up on their own, one senses an organizing adult directing the process. That adult is still the key to how valuable this slender book will be.