This Is How a Ball Rolls: The Science of Wobbling, Bouncing, Spinning Balls

An innovative and fun guessing game book about sports balls and the physics behind how they move!

In this one-of-a-kind informational picture book, cleverly tongue-twisting descriptions introduce twelve different types of sports balls, and readers are encouraged to guess what they are. An accompanying block of text provides the answer and explains the science behind how the balls do what they do (hint: the fuzz on tennis balls is there for a reason!) and what makes them so much fun! The balls are listed in ascending order by size, from a tiny marble, a ＂clinking, plinking, bumping ball,＂ to a person-sized Zorb ball, a ＂slip-and-slide-inside ball.＂ Entertaining, playful and loads of fun to read aloud, this is a perfect STEAM pick for classrooms, and a great mashup of sports and science.

Bestselling author Heather Tekavec combines a high-interest topic, fascinating science and silly-sounding text to create the kind of book that young children will want to spend time with. Suharu Ogawa’s irreverent, offbeat art is full of clever little details readers will delight in discovering. This book is a great accompaniment to primary grade science lessons on physics topics such as matter, motion, forces and inventions. The back matter contains explanations of the essential physics of balls and ball-related trivia questions.

Heather Tekavec discovered while working as a preschool teacher that children’s books were a lot more fun than adult books. In addition to picture books, such as Arnold the Super-ish Hero, Different? Same! and Stop, Thief!, Heather enjoys writing short stories, articles and poems for children’s magazines, such as CRICKET, Chirp, Highlights and Totline, and has delved a few times into writing scripts and directing live theater. She lives in Cloverdale, British Columbia.
Suharu Ogawa is a Toronto-based illustrator originally from Japan. Formally trained in art history and cultural anthropology, she worked for several years as a university librarian until her passion for illustration called her out of that career and into the pursuit of a lifelong dream. Since then, Suharu has done various work for magazines, children’s books, public art projects and more. She teaches illustration at OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario.