Light fantastic

An eight-year-old reviewer had some fun with the Light & Illusion Action Pack (Darling Kindersley, £12.99, ISBN 0 7513 5268 3), but needed help from his teenage sister. Experiments with the diffraction grating, spinning patterned wheels and optical illusions were their favourites. The dozen push-out card projects are simple and come with a brightly illustrated booklet, though the box fails to say that you’ll have to rummage about for string, sticky tape, tracing paper, glue and a torch. And what would Newton have thought of a “light action pack” without a prism or a mirror?