Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 05/01/2025 In this informal but not simplistic discourse, physicist Wade explains what light is and how it behaves—as incredibly fast waves, for example, that generally travel in straight lines but can bounce off opaque objects and spread out into a rainbow after “sort of wriggling their way through” certain transparent ones. She also sheds light on wavelengths and visible colors, leading to a glance at the entire electromagnetic spectrum as well as shadows. While pointing to other sources of light, from lightning to lantern fish, she focuses mainly on sunlight and how its energy is used not only by plants and animals but in human-specific medicine and technology to run quantum computers and see into the ocean depths and the farthest reaches of space. In Sanfelippo’s glowing illustrations, a sunny-faced young STEM-winder and her beaming pooch guide viewers from nighttime sweeps of starry skies and lush daylit landscapes to glimpses of solar cells and other tech marvels on the way to a final, prism-generated rainbow. There’s much here for younger readers to absorb and reflect on. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.