A celebration of curiosity and asking "Why?"

Genre
Humorous stories
Picture books for children
STEM fiction
Stories in rhyme
Storytime standouts
Tone
Funny
Illustration
Cartoony
Subject
African American children
Child scientists
Curiosity
Experiments
Girls
Persistence
Science

Missing Original Book Jacket

a. In the book “Ada Twist, Scientist”, a young girl spends the first three years of her life, not speaking a word. However, it is clear she has been observing the world around her, when her first word is “Why?”. She is a curious, intellectual young scientist who performs experiments and seeks to learn how items in her environment works. Her parents join in on the journey with her, adapting their home and parenting style to her needs and her budding curioristy. They all become deep thinkers and scientists together – showing support for Ada. This book has captivating text in combination will double page spread illustrations. There is diversity in use and color through the items portrayed in the book which in combination with diversity and representation of a black family, is a welcome trait. This book also defies stereotypes by portraying a young female as interested in math and science, as opposed to the young boy in the book. I recommend reading this to children at home or in school, for preschool through older elementary aged children to practice advanced vocabulary words. This book is a mirror and a window – a mirror for young children to see themselves in, especially young black girls; and this book is a window, for children to see diverse characters. this book defies gender and cultural stereotypes in an approachable, fun and enriching way for children and adults to enjoy in unison. This book won several awards, and is a New York Times Bestseller. ( )

Ada Twist, Scientist written by Andrea Beaty is a book that follows the life of young Ada Marie Twist, who is so full of questions, that her parents struggle to keep up answers. When Ada is presented with a difficult problem, she experiments and uses scientific reasoning to try and figure it out, leaving chaos everywhere she goes. I recommend this book to any middle schooler in a science classroom as it discusses females in the scientific world. It creates the image that anything is possible no matter who you are. ( )

Love! ( )

Scientist Ada is a young girl filled with a passion for science. She is constantly investigating and curious as to what is around her. Although some may say she is simply a rambunctious kid, we soon realize that all she wants is to be supported by her parents. This book would be great for early elementary students. ( )

"Her intellectual curiosity is surpassed only by her passion for science. But what to do about her messy experiments?

Ada is speechless until she turns 3. But once she learns how to break out of her crib, there’s no stopping the kinky-haired, brown-skinned girl. “She tore through the house on a fact-finding spree.” When she does start speaking, her favorite words are “why,” “how,” and “when.” Her parents, a fashion-forward black couple who sport a variety of trendy outfits, are dumbfounded, and her older brother can only point at her in astonishment. She amazes her friends with her experiments. Ada examines all the clocks in the house, studies the solar system, and analyzes all the smells she encounters. Fortunately, her parents stop her from putting the cat in the dryer, sending her instead to the Thinking Chair. But while there, she covers the wall with formulae. What can her parents do? Instead of punishing her passion, they decide to try to understand it. “It’s all in the heart of a young scientist.” Though her plot is negligible—Ada’s parents arguably change more than she does—Beaty delightfully advocates for girls in science in her now-trademark crisply rhyming text. Roberts’ illustrations, in watercolor, pen, and ink, manage to be both smart and silly; the page compositions artfully evoke the tumult of Ada’s curiosity, filling white backgrounds with questions and clutter.

Cool and stylish. (Picture book. 5-8" From Kirkus Reviews, www.kirkusreviews.com

This book is about a young scientist, Ada, and features her exploring her world and always asking the "why?" question. Then she uses the different steps and parts of the scientific method to answer her questions. This book uses rhyming which keeps the story interesting and fun for the audience. This book could be used in a science class to help go over vocabulary and review and discuss the scientific method. ( )

This book Is aimed at lower grades and is a narrative about a young scientist who is always asking "why?", and then what, how, and when, about the things that she sees and experiences. She was curious about the world around her just like a scientist. This book uses rhyming language throughout which is very fun and it also uses vocabulary and phrases such as hypothesis, testing a hypothesis, experiment, research. Ada thinks in her book about what scientists do which is something that you can discuss with your students after. You can talk about the vocabulary words they might not know and then go into more formally discussing the scientific method; you could even use the Mad Margaret book to do so. ( )

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty is an adorable book about a young girl with many questions. Ada is very curious and constantly experimenting. The book shows how her family adjusts to make room for all of Ada's questions. I like how this book showed that science starts with questions before you begin experimenting or doing the "cool stuff". I would use this in the classroom to show students the importance of asking questions or maybe even use this book to show them what kinds of questions we can ask before beginning an experiment. Overall, I enjoyed this book because it showed a girl being interested in science and had characters of color. I would have rated this book higher than 3 stars if it had slightly more science but I understand there are sequels. I would use this book from K-3. ( )

Mom's outfits rule.
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Ada Twist, Scientist is a good book to support student on asking questions and using their imagination. Ada Twist doesn't talk until she is three years old. Once she turned three, she was so curious about everything and you could tell by the questions she asked. She wants to know the why, how, what and when. It grew and grew the older Ada got. She started testing and researching her hypothesis while doing many experiments. Ada is a curious scientist who wants to explore every little thing. I'd recommend this book to grades 2nd-4th. I think this book allows students imagination to start flowing with seeing how Ada is so curious about everything. This book can be used to help students start thinking about exploring science and forming a hypothesis by asking questions. ( )

This is, like, my favorite book I've read all year. Ada is the best and the art is delightful and I love that she's curious about stinky things omg. You should read this. ( )

I love this series, and I love Ada Twist. Her family is awesome and her insatiable curiosity is infectious! ( )

LOVE the illustrations. ( )

Beaty, A., & Roberts, D. (2018). Ada Twist, scientist. Boston, MA: National Braille Press.
This book is most appropriate for preschoolers. This book is about a young girl named Ada Twist who is constantly asking why things are happening in her world. She goes to great lengths to figure out answers to her questions and is constantly performing experiments much to the dismay of her family. However, in the end Ada and her family get on the same page and realize they can support her in her constant quest to figure out the “whys” of life. Ada then takes the confidence from that family support and continues to do experiments to further enrich her knowledge.

teaching points: females in science, STEM, girl power, characters of color, the importance of curiosity and never giving up, ties in renowned and historical females scientists
Genre: fiction ( )

ADA TWIST, SCIENTIST tells the story of a young girl named Ada as she grows up, curious of everything in the world and wanting answers to all of her questions. She loved science class and grew excited when discovering the answer to one of her questions (leading her to think of and answering 2 more... then 4). However, her curiosity got her in trouble when conducting an experiment that went awry. This was a very cute story that described seeing passion for a subject in a child. ( )

This a great book for kids to read because kids can relate to little Ada and how she thinks. This book is about a little African American girl who wants to know the how and why behind everyday things. She did not talk for a while growing up. Students can relate to her because they want to know the science and real world answers to why things happen. This is great for students in the classroom because it will stir their thinking and encourage them to think on their own. ( )

Ada Twist is a little girl who enjoys exploring things. She has many questions about how and why things work the way they do. However, her scientific thinking is difficult for her parents to understand and causes Ada to get into trouble.
This book would make a good addition to any science or mathematics classroom library. It shows that finding an answer often begins with asking more questions. ( )

This is about a young girl who loves science more than anything in the world, she didn't talk till she was three and the first question she asked was why? From there her questions grew bigger just as she did just like any great scientist. This book is perfect for any classroom, because she never stopped till she found her answer which is important because the students should always ask why and never stop looking for answers. That is how children grow and learn and understand, that is why I gave this book 5 stars. ( )

Ada Twist, Scientist is a rhyming story about a girl named Ada, who was very curious, asking why, when, where, how? As she grew up she realized science was her passion and began going on adventures with science, doing experiments, testing hypothesis, and coming to conclusions.
This book would be great in a math and science classroom, even in an English class. Even though the book is about Ada being a scientist, the author's writing was brilliant and can be used as an example writing in an English classroom. I rate this book 5/5 because it was a run read, had great pictures, rhymed, and expresses to the reader that just because one hypotheses doesn't come true, you can try again and again and again. The parents in the book are also amazing! Their daughter was so curious and in love with science and they did what they could to help her express herself. ( )

Ada Twist Scientist is a short illustrated book about a little girl that asks one of the most powerful questions known to the field of science, Why? The story follows little Ada through her troublemaking adventures where she explores the world around her and wants to know how and why everything worked the way that it did. Having a story like this in the classroom can be a fun way to show that curiosity is a wonderful thing to have and that anyone can become a scientist. ( )

This book is about a young girl that didn't say a word until she turned three and the she began to question everything. She learned how to turn these everyday questions that she wanted answered into science experiments and spent all of her time creating these experiments in order to find the answers she was looking for. I gave this book 5 starts because I thought it was a very cute book that told a very interesting story about scientific experiments. This would be a good book to read in an English classroom because solving problems like Ada did is a skill that all students should learn. ( )