1. The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists
Gotham Books
2. The Mad Scientist Handbook
The Mad Scientist Handbook offers 48 different experiments, intended for kids age 13 and older. There are some basic chemistry experiments - fake blood, invisible ink, green slime, stink bombs - but the majority of the experiments are more physics oriented. For a good, basic book of experiments for a child to perform, you can't really go wrong with The Mad Scientist Handbook.
3. How to Fossilize Your Hamster
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
The title experiment is intriguing, but takes millions of years, so is hardly the most immediately pressing presented in the book. The experiments here tend to involve mostly easily-accessible items from the home and are intended for personal amusement at least as much as educational value.
Unlike several other books on this list, this is written with the intention of an adult (or European) audience. Some of the experiments involve alcohol, so adult supervision is suggested.
4. Klutz Labs science books
Klutz Labs
Klutz Labs has an extensive line of all-in-one science kits, packaged together with books that provide great information about how to assemble the kits. Many of the books also provide background information on the scientific concepts at work. We have a list of several of their physics-related products, along with some reviews.
5. The Mad Scientist Notebook
Lark Books
The major selling point of The Mad Scientist's Notebook is the artistic and writing style of the book which is written as if it were the notebook of a budding mad scientist. This allows for some amusing asides, such as the author's various plans of world domination, including zombie vegetables and crashing the moon into the earth, not to mention entertaining doodles and images of sticky notes throughout its pages. The font, meant to emulate handwriting, can be a bit annoying, but is easily readable.
