NEWTON AND CURIE

A nearby school for humans provides all the impetus needed to discover what makes everything work. From comprehending the amazing combo of force, mass, and gravity required for playground swings to the secrets of seesaws and pulleys, the intrepid experimenters can’t get enough. They test ideas using trial and error to refine their science projects. The children’s teacher, a woman of color, introduces diagrams of simple machines to a diverse group of grade school children. The information is not lost on the spying squirrel siblings, who apply the principles to return a fallen nest of four (miraculously intact) robins’ eggs to their relieved parents’ tree. How do birds defy gravity when flying? Newton and Currie can’t wait to find out! Kirk’s simple STEAM-driven text seamlessly leads readers from one tenet of physics to another as it’s applied to common objects. Kirk’s use of the schoolroom whiteboard to educate the squirrels is a clever visual aid. The anthropomorphic characters’ clothing reflects the casual dress of the students, and the bright palette is a perfect attention-getter for the story’s targeted audience. Repeated images of simple machines cover the endpapers, and the backmatter includes an introduction to some basic laws of physics, a detailed glossary, and links to science websites. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

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