# Science book for kids from late 80s/early 90s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-book-for-kids-from-late-80s-early-90s/803521 "2017-12-04T06:18:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-book-for-kids-from-late-80s-early-90s/803521/1 "2017-12-04T06:18:12Z")
Hi everyone. Y’all are so good at identifying books by half-remembered details, I wonder if you could help me. The book I’m thinking of was given to me in the late 80s or early 90s. It was softcover. It was illustrated with black and white cartoonish drawings. I think the cover was predominantly yellow but I wouldn’t swear to it. I think “… You Can Do at Home” was part of the title. It contained a lot of “experiments” for kids to do at home. Given that the results were foreseen, they weren’t really experiments, but that’s me being pedantic. Anyway: specific ones I remember from it were 1. Painting things with many layers of nail polish, then peeling it off in one coherent sheet, because nail polish is a plastic 2. Putting salt and vinegar on old pennies to make them shiny and new again (and another reaction for cleaning silver, iirc) 3. Making pH testing solution out of red cabbage 4. Building a rudimentary still to make rosewater I know there have been a million books like this, but can anyone point me to the specific one? Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-book-for-kids-from-late-80s-early-90s/803521/2 "2017-12-04T18:28:59Z")
Bumping for the daytime crowd. Anybody? Bueller? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-book-for-kids-from-late-80s-early-90s/803521/3 "2017-12-04T18:35:28Z")
[Amazon.com](https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Make-Yourself-Science-Projects/dp/0806903678) “100 Amazing Make-It-Yourself Science Fair Projects,” maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Scoobysnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-book-for-kids-from-late-80s-early-90s/803521/4 "2017-12-04T21:16:44Z")
it sounds like the bet you can and bet you can’t books that I read around the same time. The only experiment that doesn’t sound similar is the rosewater still. [Bet You Can’t](https://www.amazon.com/Bet-You-Cant-Vicki-Cobb/dp/0380545020) [Bet You Can](https://www.amazon.com/Bet-You-Science-Possibilities-Fool/dp/038082180X) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-book-for-kids-from-late-80s-early-90s/803521/5 "2017-12-04T22:52:39Z")
Nah, those books were favorites of mine, and they don’t really sound like a match. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-book-for-kids-from-late-80s-early-90s/803521/6 "2017-12-05T00:30:43Z")
I agree. They look cool, but none of the books mentioned so far are the one I’m remembering.