Review Detail

Encouraging scientific experimentation, using recipes created by author Jason Logan, to create homemade colored inks instead of relying on store bought products, readers become "wizards" of their own backyards.

How to Be a Color Wizard is broken down in easy to follow chapters, starting with solid advice about clothing, asking for help, recording observations in a notebook, and collecting materials and ingredients. Logan provides precise instructions, while still encouraging children to use their imagination and improvise.
There is a fun quiz in the beginning, so you can find your wizarding element and a fun "decoding the secret activity" symbols, informing wizards and their assistants how difficult a project may be.

One thing that would have loved would have been the inclusion of Indigenous historical knowledge around plants and their use as dyes. The history of the magic.
The being said, I love the scientific information provided, why/how the colors happen.
Logan includes different "color hero" historical profiles along the way. It was interesting learning about different, and not so common, things these historical figures have done.

This book is beautifully photographed, adding whimsy to experiments. The added collage of other "Color Wizards" completing activities will further bolster children to get outside and create.

How to Be a Color Wizard makes a wonderful addition to our homeschool curriculum!