Book Review

By St. Fernada Dini Anggraeni (184214139)

Title: Ada Twist, Scientist

Author: Andrea Beaty, David Roberts (Illustrator)
Pages: 32 pages
Publish: September 6th, 2016
Age Group: Approx. 3 - 6 years

Summary:
This book tells about a little girl named Ada Marie Twist. When Ada was 3, she was not
yet talking but one night, she escaped from her crib and messed everything up. She is described
as a kid who is full of curiosity. She always asks “why”, “what, “how”, “when”, and “why”
again. Her parents patiently keep up with her, answering her questions as they can. She also
flooded her teacher with her curious thoughts. Until this point, they concluded that Ada has the
traits of a scientist. Whenever she finds a question, she cannot stop searching for the answer. One
spring day, she smelled a pungent aroma that caused her toes to curl up. She found a new puzzle
to solve. She did experiments to find the answer. She almost put the cat into the washing
machine when her parents saw and stopped her. They yelled to her and command to sit on the
Thinking Chair, as a punishment after messing up their supper - cabbage stew - and the cat. But
she cannot stop thinking about her question and keep questioning. When her parents came back
to talk with her, they found the wall was full with Ada’s scribble. They were not angry, they
smiled and helped her with the mystery. It ends with Ada and her classmates doing experiments
to find the source of the pungent smell.

Review:
This picturebook have a really attractive illustrations. Sometimes, it uses the whole page
full of pictures, and another time with just a half of the page.The illustration uses the brown skin
and curly hair, which usually associated with African-American race, that is interesting because
most people (especially non-America) when reading an english book, they often imagine the
character as white man. But this book gives the highly spotlight to brown skin and
African-Americans. Beaty also writes it with rhymes at the end of the lines, so it is interesting
when we read it aloud, also interesting for kids who hear it. It gives it a touch of ‘music’ and I
love it. This book is a part of the “Questioneers Picture Books” series with the same writer and
illustrator. In this book, the main character is Ada Marie Twist. The author said in her note that
the name Ada was taken from a woman mathematician, Ada Lovalace, and Marie from a woman
scientist who invented the elements polonium and radium, Marie Curie. The way of Beaty’s
narrative shows through this book, she wants to validate children who are always curious about a
lot of things. Ada is a kid with a lot of questions and mystery in her head, and it is identified as a
trait of a scientist: full of curiosity, always searching for the answer, always questioning from the
small things until the big ones. Through this book, children are inspired to be like Ada: not afraid
to ask whatever they are curious about. The parents’ reaction toward Ada’s character and
question also want to motivate parents out there, who probably have the same situation with
Twist’s family, to keep encouraging their children and let them think like a scientist. I would
recommend this book to all the young readers and parents out there.