I've always been partial to sodium. It's what gives campfires and sodium-vapor street lamps their yellow color. Sodium is also fun to cut with a knife, since it's soft, and watch it immediately oxidize. If you cut off a little piece of sodium and throw it in a beaker of water, it will sizzle around on the surface, releasing hydrogen, and then ignite into a flaming ball of awesome.

I'd love to see how this book describes sodium!