#blogbookaday: Charlotte the Scientist Is Squished

Summary:  “Charlotte is a serious scientist. She solves important problems by following the scientific method. She has all the right equipment: protective glasses, a lab coat, a clipboard, and a magnifying glass. What she doesn’t have is space. She has so many brothers and sisters (she is a rabbit, after all) that she is too squished to work on her experiments! Can she use science to solve her problem? This funny, satisfying story is a playful introduction to the scientific method and perfect for sparking an interest in STEM subjects.” (Taken from Goodreads)

Review: Charlotte takes being a scientist seriously, so when her brothers and sisters continually get in her way, she uses the scientific method to test some hypotheses and learns more than she expected to in the process. I loved that this STEM-focused story featured a female scientist and made the scientific method applicable to the world around kids. The illustrations are absolutely adorable with Charlotte and her family is a varying array of bunny colors, plus the use of colored pencil makes the illustrations fit an elementary age audience – they’re fun, brightly colored and do a great job of taking the story to the next level!

Personal Reaction: I have a feeling I’ll be gifting this story to a lot of little girls I know that like to ask questions – it’s the perfect book to encourage a love of science (and asking questions), plus would make a great introduction to elementary school classrooms when talking about the scientific method – maybe before working on science fair projects. I love that Charlotte has a problem and tests out multiple solutions before finding something that works – hard work and ingenuity are a must for all scientists!

Title: Charlotte the Scientist Is Squished
Author: Camille Andros
Illustrator: Brianne Farley
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication Date: March 14, 2017

This is a new idea I’m trying on my blog this year that was inspired by @donalynbooks and @heisereads – to provide a brief review of a picture book every day of 2018. You’ll get a brief summary of the story, a review of the content, illustrations and theme, my personal reaction to the book and all the pertinent publication information! Enjoy!