Book Review: The Element in the Room by Mike Barfield, Lauren Humphrey

The Element in the Room is a children's non fiction book written by Mike Barfield and illustrated by Lauren Humphrey. Did you know that without the ‘lead’ in your pencil, there would be no life on Earth? Just about everything in the universe is made from only 92 elements – and from aluminium to zinc, many of them are hiding in your very own home! This guide is full of interesting facts about the atomic ingredients that make up everything around us. Join scientific sleuth Sherlock Ohms as he investigates the elements, and help his enquiries with explosive experiments. 

The Element in the Room is bright, with charming illustrations and colors to help hold reader's attention. I did find it a little more text heavy and harder to read than I was expecting based on the description and illustration style, but that might be more on me than anything else. The beginning of the book goes into great detail about elements, atoms, the periodic table and more o help readers understand the significance of the information about each of the elements.  I did like the way the book was organized, and how each element was detailed, and I especially liked that here was a glossary and index included in the endpages. I think this book would do well for middle grade readers and older, perhaps even in middle and high school science classrooms.