HOMESCHOOL PJ TIME

The Salzmans’ debut picture book introduces kids—whether home-schooled or taught in the classroom—to the wonders of a STEM education.

The central character here, 8-year-old Nina, takes the reader through her daily regimen of home-school adventures. Each day, she participates in a new activity—studying nature on Monday or listening to classical music and painting on Thursday. Along with each new activity, interesting facts are dispensed alongside suggestions for reader participation. For example, Newton’s third law of motion encourages readers to throw a pillow up in the air to observe the effects of gravity, or one can burrow like a firefly under blankets to learn about hibernation. Whether she’s meeting up with fellow home-school classmates or taking a field trip to an amusement park, Nina’s excitement about learning is undeniably contagious. The bright, colorful illustrations (by 15-year-old West) help kids visualize often difficult concepts like states of matter and different forms of energy like potential and kinetic, while the text’s rhyme scheme (“On weekends, Nina camps in bed. No school today, a fort instead”) keeps the action moving. Also, the fonts of certain words are often cleverly designed to complement the word’s meaning (for example, the word erupts appears to have lava spurting out of it). As the authors suggest, this book should initially be read from beginning to end quickly in order to appreciate the rhythmic flow of the words. There are even experiments that demonstrate things like heat flow and light observation and a model weekly STEM plan so readers can set goals just like Nina.

This is a fun and easy-to-follow children’s guide to STEM with a precocious but likable central character.