Ada Twist and the Perilous Pantaloons
By Author / Illustrator
Andrea Beaty, David Roberts
Genre
Early Readers & Young Fiction
Age range(s)
7+
Publisher
Abrams
ISBN
9781419739019
Format
Hardback
Reviews
Nikki
Watching my little girl's face whilst reading this book was priceless. Ada Twist had her giggling all the way through. This book is so in tune with its targeted audience; the characters are relatable and the story is great fun for all budding young scientists. Ada Twist is full of questions. This young star can barely get through breakfast without filling her head with a never-ending list of questions to explore. One question always leads into another until she's off on a journey of discovery. In this story Ada's new knowledge about gases, air and the forces working between them gets put to the test, when Uncle Ned's Perilous Pantaloons fly off into the sky. The Helium-filled pants float off in the wind and Ada and her friends need to think fast to work out how to get him down again. This book is part of a series devoted to a group of bright young STEM-lovin' girls. Each of the books in this series provide great lessons: teamwork, brainstorming, persistence, camaraderie, problem solving and STEM. And Ada Twist is no exception! I don't feel you need to have read the others in the series or the previous releases of picture books to be able to follow along with the characters although I'm sure you will want to after reading this one. The chapters in this book are short and manageable for early chapter book readers and there are plenty of visuals to keep readers engaged. Children will enjoy the graph paper illustrations and notes jotted by Ada. I'm sure these will inspire readers to draw some of their own. I was surprised to see as much 'real science' as I did in this book; I couldn't imagine how this could be achieved without overloading readers and turning an exciting storyline into a non-fiction text. However, the 'real science' slots in perfectly all the way through. Ada describes her ideas to her friends using accurate scientific terminology in child like explanations. A good dose of learning for both adults and children alike! This is a great book to use to model questioning and scientific thinking. All the steps of good quality investigations (for children of this age range) are covered throughout this book from creating a hypothesis, predicting an outcome, research, testing, results and finally weighing up conclusions. 144 pages / Ages 7+ / Reviewed by Nikki Stiles, teacher
Suggested Reading Age 7+