September 14, 2021 by Workman Kids
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
It's one thing to have a book of science experiments. There are tons of those. What makes STEM like a girl different is the inclusion of a wide variety of tween girls who are interested in science. Alongside their pictures are interviews with them that discuss their interests in science and how they work their experiements into their everyday lives.
There are eleven experiments and four design challenges. All are rated as to the level of difficulty, and include a "STEM application" page that discusses the real life uses of the project. For example, the bath bombs are an example of acid-base chemistry and the marble maze uses skills that aspiring civil engineers might find helpful. There are a few unusual items needed for the projects, but the only thing I was missing for the bath bombs was Epsom salts, which my parents always had on hand! Most items are things that would be found around the house, or would be easy and fairly inexpensive to find at a store.
There's a lot of white space on the page, which gives this a fresh, clean, lab-like feel to the pages. There's a lot of use of blue and green in the text and photographs, which was nice to see; this wasn't stereotypically "girly" and pink, which will appeal to a wider range of readers.
As someone who frequently asked to melt string onto an ice cube with salt (the only science experiment I remember being allowed to do!), I know I would have loved this as a tween. I may yet make the squishy soap, since I have a container of gelatine at home! Give this to a budding scientist in your life with the promise of working on several of the experiments with her. Other books you may want to consider to go with this book include Campbell's Science Experiments for Girls: Science Activities for Kids 8-12 (At Home Science Experiments for Kids), Connolly's The Book of Terrifyingly Awesome Technology: 27 Experiments for Young Scientists (Irresponsible Science), Brunelle's Turn This Book Into a Beehive!: And 19 Other Experiments and Activities That Explore the Amazing World of Bees, or Storey Publishing's Backpack Explorer books.
October 30, 2018 by Workman Kids
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Using some of the photographs from her 2017 Strong Is the New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Themselves, Parker has constructed a helpful guided journal to motivate girls to think about their emotions, their place in the world, and the intersection of these things with traditional societal expectations.
Prompts include introspective questions like "What is your happy place?" and "Who are your heroes?" They often include instructions for drawing pictures or defining words. I enjoyed the different templates for these; some involve bubbles for weekend activities or a plate to draw favorite foods.
The accompaning photographs show a diverse group of girls climbing trees, playing ball, or just giggling together. The colors on the templates are often pastel, and the light line drawings leave lots of room for the owner of the journal to express themselves. This book would make a great gift along with some gel pens and a carrying case, so that the book would be easier to take up into a tree!
Some tweens will need help to work through this entire journal, but some will need more than one outlet for harnessing all of their writing energy. Other similar activity books include Carter, Chamblee, and Walthall's I Am, I Can, I Will: A Guided Journal of Self-Discovery for Black Girls, Peterson's You're Weird: A Creative Journal for Misfits, Oddballs, and Anyone Else Who's Uniquely Awesome, and Whitehead's Girl Power: A Journal: Encouraging Prompts and Affirmations to Empower a Confident You.
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