This book is a fiction book that tells the story of a little girl and her friend that discover that light filtering through a prism can cause rainbows. The two friends spy rainbows on the wall and explore to find where they came from, and after talking to adults, working through their misconceptions, and investigating, they find the source of the rainbows were prisms found in the neighbor's chandelier.
This book was really good. It asked a question, addressed common misconceptions, and through characters investigating answered the question. And it was all done in a way that's engaging to the reader.
I would use this at the beginning of a unit on light, probably. I would do an interactive read aloud that would engage students in their own investigation of light.

The Rainbow Mystery was a fun, cute and easy read. It would make a great book to introduce the studies of rainbows and prisms to children. There are numerous things I liked about this book and found beneficial. It follows a fun storyline that children can relate to and see themselves in. It is easy enough so that depending on age students can read independently or would make a great read aloud before a new science unit. One of my favorite things about this story is that at the end there is a fun little activity/experiment that the students can try on their own after reading the story. I think it would be fun to use this book in the class and have students explain how the characters are behaving like scientists. It would also be interesting to let the students hypothesize about what they think is going to happen in the story along with the main character hypothesis. ( )