She took a deep breath and she simply asked, “Why?”
Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts is a celebration being inquisitive, persistent, independent and creative!
In this delightful picture book, we meet Ada Twist , a young scientist who doesn’t start to speak until she is three (echoing Einstein). Once she does start talking her world is full of why, how, what, when and many different experiments and investigations along the way.
Ada’s parents and teacher are bombarded with her constant questioning and messy investigations but luckily they see her passion and her gift and give her the time and the support that she needs.
And that’s what they did – because that’s what you do when your kid has a passion and a heart that is true.
The illustrations by David Roberts are brilliant and not only support the story but add so much more to it. As we read along you can search for the pet cat, the smelly socks, her brother and the trail of investigations Ada leaves behind.
The reader can see her thoughts floating around her written not only in words but also through her facial expressions.
Andrea Beaty’s rhyming text is not only a perfect way to tell the story of young Ada but a perfect way to teach young children that when they follow their passions and dreams, with the support of those around them, they can achieve anything.
Ada Twist, who we leave in Year Two, still makes a mess and still makes mistakes but she is learning along the way and her passion is infectious – we see many of her class mates also taking part in her investigations and experiments.
Ada Twist, Scientist is a brilliant story based on inspiring female scientists such as Marie Curie and Ada Lovelace. Perhaps this story will inspire your daughter or female students to reach out and achieve their scientific dreams.
So what can you do at home?
Gifted Education
Gifted education is a passion of mine and when I read this story to myself and out loud to different children I really loved the support Ada’s parents gave her. They weren’t smothering her by enrolling her in every course or after school activity and they also were not dismissing her talent by telling her to stop asking so many questions.
I think that parent’s can take note of Ada’s supportive parents and perhaps start to look at their child and see what they need, listen to their questions and answer them in the best possible way. Many gifted children do not turn their gifts into talents because of the lack of support and the feeling that they are asking too many questions.
- Listen to your children and answer their questions.
- Show them that you don’t always know the answers and help them to research or investigate.
- Give them time to play and investigate rather than always being involved in an after school activity.
Science Investigation: Smell
- Investigate the olfactory system.
- Investigate how long smell takes to travel to us and if we need to see something to know what it smells like.
- Create your own perfume for different purposes (to repell mosquitoes, to smell nice by the beach, to smell nice at a party, to ward off witches etc)
- Compare different smells and work out how we know the difference between good and bad smells and what those smells are really telling us!
Teacher Guide is here: http://www.abramsbooks.com/adatwist/
