Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Brian Biggs, 192 pp, RL: 3

-


Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor by Jon Scieszka with fantastic illustrations by Brian Biggs is  the book I have been most anticipating this year and it definitely delivers! Of course, everyone knows Scieszka, the author of contemporary picture book classics like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Fairy Tales, but The Time Warp Trio, his chapter book series which debuted in 1991 holds a special place in my (and my kids') hearts. Combining smart humor and history, The Time Warp Trio was a brilliant and singular alternative to the Magic Tree House and Junie B Jones chapter books when my daughter started to really read in the late 90s and again when my boys began reading. For me, reading Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor is a little like coming home and I hope that this six book series will make a brand new generation of readers laugh, think and, best of all, want to read more!

Brian Biggs, author and illustrator of the superb Everything Goes series of picture books that are part Richard Scarry, part Where's Waldo, brings the world of Frank Einstein vividly and hilariously to life. Biggs's illustrations are as jam packed with details as Frank's workbench, but what I especially love are the full and half-page infographics that Biggs illustrates with a background of graph paper. In figures 1.0 through 1.24, Biggs diagrams everything from how a maglev skateboard works to how Frank rigged his stuffed, singing bass on a plaque to the doorbell to the mechanics of a squirt gun. I couldn't imagine Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor being illustrated by anyone else.


Frank's story begins one night in the town of Midville, in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm, amidst a "workbench covered with the bits and parts of twenty years' worth of mechanical, electrical and plumbing repairs" from Grandpa Al's Fix It! shop. Frank Einstein and his pal Watson, the inventor of "Universal-Strength Peanut Butter Chewing Gum," are hoping to spark life into a toaster-headed SmartBot with the hope of winning the Midville Science Prize. The stakes are raised when T. Edison and and Mr Chimp, an actual, suit wearing chimpanzee and CFO who communicates in sign language (a diagram of Mr. Chimp's signing alphabet is included in the back of the book and signed images of his utterances, including, "Peace Out," appear in the story) show up at the Fix It! shop with a deed showing that Grandpa Al has signed over his shop to Edison in the event that Frank doesn't win the Science Prize.


Add to this Frank's inventions/creations Klink and Klank, the Frog and Toad of robots with the ability to think for themselves using "a biophysical model from human neuroscience." Frank has the Bots read Isaac Assimov's I, Robot and memorize the Three Laws of Robotics before setting them to work. Besides the SmartBots, there is an endless parade of inventions and experiments from a "Model-Train Shoe Delivery System" to a "Double Helix DNA Slide" and "Dimetrodon Phone" in the shape of an actual dinosaur, the fin-like backbone serving as a video screen that allows Frank to see and talk to his globetrotting parents. Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor is a book filled with things that will engross, engage and even inspire readers to do a little science of their own. 

Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor truly is filled with scientific details on so many levels that kids won't even realize all the information within. One of my favorite subtleties comes when Mr. Chimp pulls a small, metal box out of his pocket and dips into  with a stick. When he removes the stick, it's covered in ants, and he proceeds to lick it like a lollipop. Maybe Mr. Chimp's snacking habits will even lead readers to learn about Jane Goodall, the first scientist to record animals using tools after observing. In 1960, Goodall observed a chimpanzee as he stripped the leaves off a twig, stick it into a termite hole then eat the bugs that clung to it. One thing is for sure, readers will be counting the days until the next book in the  Frank Einstein series hits the shelves! 





Source: Review Copy














Popular posts from this blog

Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala

-
Image
Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala Review Copy from Abrams Kids I picture-walked Be a Tree! three times before I actually read the words. Felicita Sala's illustrations for Maria Gianferrari's poetic text are mesmerizingly immersive and richly colorful within a palette of earth tones. Throughout the text, Gianferrari, who shares her inspiration for this book in the author's note ( Peter Wohleben's The Hidden Life of Trees ), gently maintains the human connection to trees and the connections (and communications) trees share with each other.  Be a Tree!  begins exuberantly, inviting the reader to "Be a tree! Stand tall. Stretch your branches to the sun. Let your roots curl, coil in the soil to ground you." From your spine/trunk to your skin/bark and your heart/pith, the words carry you inward and then zoom outward and up to the canopy and ultimately, the forest. "You are one of many trees," and our roots "twine with fung
Read more

Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński, 112 pp, RL: ALL AGES

-
Image
Under Earth , Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel  Mizieliński is their fourth book I have reviewed here and their fourth book with the marvelous Big Picture Press , a publisher of oversized, highly illustrated, gorgeous books who believe that books should be "visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all ages, abilities and nationalities." BPP definitely achieves this with every book they publish and, if you are a book lover, you will want to seek out all their titles. Under Earth , Under Water will appeal to anyone who likes to look inside things and understand how things work. With Under Earth, Under Water , the Mizielińskis, who have an illustration style that is filled with tiny details and a unique palette, take readers on a detailed journey, from the top of the page to the bottom, over and under land and then sea. The endpapers serve as the introduction and table of contents, with images scattered across the spread, page nu
Read more

Reading Levels: A Quick Guide to Determining if a Book Is Right for Your Reader

-
Image
While I wrote an article titled Reading Levels: How I Assign Reading Levels to Books, How the Publishers Do It and How You Can Help Your Reader Find the Right Book at the Right Time that discusses how reading levels are determined by professionals and amateurs like myself, there is more on this subject to discuss. Determining the reading level of a book from the children's section is never easy, mostly because there are several different standardized methods of determining reading levels. Add to this the fact that knowing their children's reading level is most often the only tool a parent is armed with when exploring the bookstore, library, website, etc, and the job becomes even more difficult. While I think that knowing a child's reading level is a very valuable tool if your child is reading below grade level, I think that it is a secondary consideration when finding books for children reading above, especially well above, grade level because, in most cases, content app
Read more