Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Things: How to Make a Boomerang with a Business Card, Convert a Pencil into a Microphone, Make Animated Origami, Turn a TV ... Create Alternative Energy Science Projects,   ISBN:9780740768743

Customer Rating: 

Simply put, this book is meant to put first graders to sleep. The projects are simple, impractical, and boring. How do you create a "sneaky" mini-boomerang out of cardboard? Cut a "V" out of the cardboard and there you go! Plainly uninformative. How do you create a robot? 4 ice cube trays, 12 Pringles containers, and an electric clock. That's not science!

I read MAKE magazine and I suppose I was looking for something along those lines when I ordered this book. Based on the title, I ordered the book as a gift for a kid, but never gave it. It was just a disappointment. Just because you put "sneaky" in front of a word, like oragami or jacket, does not make it so.

Customer Rating: 

This review is for all three books in this series. The first note is they are clearly written for the 13 year old and under crowd. For them, it should stimulate the creative scientific gene in them, and open their imaginations to harmless scientific experimentation. So if there is a young burgeonoing, tinkering youngster in your life, these books could be the spark to spur them into some educational fun.

Customer Rating: 

I bought all three of these books and have read them all. They are very interesting and a great idea for a rainy day. If you buy one you should buy them all. These are some of the most entertaining set of books I have ever read. I highly recommend them!

Customer Rating: 

This was given as a Christmas present and it has brought a lot of laughs and some serious tinkering. Fun!

Customer Rating: 

My husband got the first book a while back for himself, but wasn't disappointed when he found it was a better book for our kids, so I got this one just to top out my last order for free shipping. I'm glad I did.
It's as good as the first one, with a lot of simple and non-intimidating projects for the beginning maker, and a lot of them are done with things you can find around the house easily, or ask your friends for.
Like the first book, a lot of the projects have room for improvement, which I think is a great thing, it inspires people to think a little more, to mess around a bit, and see what they can come up with, and feel like they really did something themselves. My 13 yo daughter likes it a lot, and we've planned on trying some of the projects together.