Albert Einstein and Relativity for Kids

His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities and Thought Experiments

by Jerome Pohlen

Review posted January 16, 2014.
Chicago Review Press, 2012. 126 pages.
Starred Review
2013 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #4 Children's Nonfiction

Wow! This book not only tells you about Albert Einstein's life, it also gives you a grasp of the basic ideas behind relativity. In a way kids can understand. In a way I can understand!

The majority of the book is a serviceable, well-written biography. It tells about Einstein's life, his family, where he lived, and how the two world wars affected him. There are many old photographs and other visual aids.

But along with the biography, you've got a series of thought experiments and other activities to help the reader understand the concepts. It starts with one of Albert Einstein's earliest experiments, playing with a magnet and compass. In the section on his childhood, you're challenged to build a house of cards, something he liked to do as a child. It continues with a cool experiment calculating the speed of life with a chocolate bar in a microwave and an experiment with milk in a water bottle that shows why the sky is blue. Especially interesting are thought experiments which Einstein himself described to help understand Relativity.

The combination of facts with activities and thought experiments makes this an especially interesting book that kids will understand at a deeper level.