Ada is not likeable for a good stretch of this book, and that is the point of it.
Book two. There is a robotics competition coming and Ada means to win it, mostly to beat Milton. At the same time she is bad at art class, which her own father teaches, and Nina is the best in the room. Ada gets jealous. She loses her temper. She stops speaking to her dad. Meanwhile the robot still does not work.
The science it actually teaches
Be honest about this one: the science here is thinner than in the mystery books, and what it does carry is a single idea that most children's books only put on a poster.
The idea is that the art class and the robot are the same skill. The store's own copy says Ada starts to wonder whether she can use both science and art to solve her problems, and that turns out to be the argument of the book rather than a slogan on the last page. It works because she is genuinely bad at one of the two and has to get better at it in public, in front of her father, next to a friend who finds it easy.
Underneath that, two real habits. The first is diagnosis. A robot that does not work is not a failure, it is a question, and the whole middle of the book is spent finding out where the fault actually is instead of starting over. Children are rarely shown that. They are shown finished projects. The second is that the word hypothesis turns up as a working word in a situation your child can see the use of, which is the only way that word has ever stuck to anybody.
If you want a book that leaves a child knowing facts about a subject, this is not it, and I would rather say so than dress it up. What it leaves behind is a claim: that noticing shape and proportion and how a thing is put together is one ability, and it does not care whether you are pointing it at a drawing or at a gearbox.
The child it lands with
This is the one to buy for the child who has already decided what kind of person they are. The one who says they are a science kid and not an art kid, or an art kid and not a science kid, and says it with their arms folded. The book takes that exact position away from them without lecturing.
It also lands with a child who has a temper and has never seen one written down honestly. Ada's is not comic and it is not cured by a hug. She has to go back and repair something she broke, which most books at this level will not make their heroine do.
One place to stop and talk
Stop right after Ada loses her temper at her father and ask your child what she is actually angry about. The answer on the page is art class. The answer underneath is that she is bad at something in front of the one person whose opinion she cares about, while her best friend finds it easy. Once your child says that out loud they have named the thing that stops most people learning anything new after about the age of nine.
What to know going in
Nothing dies here, nobody is hurt, and there is nothing frightening on the page. The hard thing in this book is a bad feeling, and it sits there for a long time before it lifts.
Ada is jealous of her best friend, she is unkind about it, and she freezes out her father for a good chunk of the story. A child who has recently fought with a parent may find that closer to home than they were expecting. That is usually the reason to hand it over rather than a reason not to, but you should know it is coming instead of finding out from the couch.
Two smaller notes. It is a competition book, so a child who takes losing hard will feel the last act. And the store band of grades 2 to 5 runs generous at the top, the same as the rest of the series. Call it a grade 2 to 4 independent read.
Where to get it
If you are only buying two of the four, this is not one of the two. The science in it is the thinnest in the series and I would rather say so than sell around it. Buy Ada Lace Sees Red at $6.99 for a particular child instead: the one who has already announced they are a science kid and not an art kid, or an art kid and not a science kid. For that child it is the most useful book of the four. Priced like the rest of the series, and shelved with them under Stealth Science.
If your child liked this one
Books we have written about that sit close to this one, by reading level and by subject.
Ada Lace and the Impossible Mission: Scale and Sensors
Ada Lace and the Impossible Mission by Emily Calandrelli
Grade 2 to 5
Ada Lace, on the Case: a Hunch Is Not a Hypothesis
Ada Lace, on the Case by Emily Calandrelli
Grade 2 to 5
Amazing Magnetism: Science You Can Check With a Magnet
Amazing Magnetism (the Magic School Bus Chapter Book #12) by Rebecca Carmi
Grade 2 to 4
The Giant Germ: How an Infection Actually Works
The Giant Germ (the Magic School Bus Chapter Book #6) by Joanna Cole
Grade 2 to 4
Browse every book we have written about by age, by kind of book and by subject: Find the right book for your child. Or see the whole Stealth Science shelf.
