Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea BeatyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
ADA TWIST SCIENTIST
BY: ANDREA BEATY
PUBLISHED: ABRAMS BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
YEAR: 2016
AGES: 4-8
PAGES:
In our third and final Questioneer book we have another prodigal child on a quest to be the best she can be. She has two parents who are very present in her life and in this story. Let’s see how they both help or hinder their very talented daughter. Ada Twist’s story provides an example of how an adult character stepping in to slow things down isn’t always bad, and in some cases is actually necessary.
ACT I
P1: Title Page
P2:
ADA MARIE! ADA MARIE! Said not a word til the day she turned three. She bounced in her crib and looked all around observing the world but not making a sound.
P3
She learned how to climb and made her big break, with a trail of chaos left in her wake. She ran through the day chasing each sound and sight, and didn’t slow down til she conked out at night.
P4 - P5
Her parents were frazzled - but tried not to freak - as Ada grew bigger and still did not speak. Clearly, young Ada, with lots in her head, would have something to say when it ought to be said.
P6
That’s just what happened when Ada turned three. She tore through the house on a fact-finding spree and climbed up the clock, just as high as she could. Her parents yelled “STOP!” (As all good parents would).
P7
Ada’s chin quivered, but she did not cry. She took a deep breath and she simply asked, “Why?”
P8
“Why does it tick and why does it tock?”
“Why don’t we call it a granddaughter clock?”
“Why are there pointy things stuck to a rose?”
“Why are there hairs up inside of your nose?”
P9
She started with Why? And then What? How? And When? By bedtime she came back to Why? Once again. She drifted to sleep as her dazed parents smiled at the curious thoughts of their curious child, who wanted to know what the world was about. They kissed her and whispered, “You’ll figure it out.”
P10
Her parents kept up with their high-flying kid,
P11
Whose questions and chaos both grew as she did.
P12
Act I establishes Ada’s character as a headstrong, impulsive personality driven by curiosity. She spent three years observing the world - the first step in the scientific method. Once she finally found her voice the first thing she did was ask questions - the second step in the scientific method. She plays by conducting experiments and collecting data - yup, the forth and fifth steps in the scientific method.
We see that she’s so driven by curiosity that she gives no mind to caution. This is where her parents come in. Both behave as the same character, jumping in to tell Ada to stop when she’s going too far (As all good parents should).
ACT II
P13
Ada was busy that first day of spring testing the sounds that
make mockingbirds sing, when a horrible stench whacked her right in the nose - a pungent aroma that crawled up her toes. “Zowie!” Said Ada, which got her to thinking: “What is the source of that terrible stinking?”“How does a nose know there’s something to smell?”
“And does it still stink if there’s no nose to tell?”
Sh rattled off questions and tapped on her chin. She started at the start where she ought to begin. A mystery! A riddle! A puzzle! A quest!
This was the moment that Ada loved best.
P14
Ada did research to learn all she could of smelling and smells - both the stinky and good. One hypothesis Ada thought could be true: The terrible stink came from Dad’s cabbage stew!
She tested and tested, but soon Ada knew . . . It was time to come up with
Hypothesis Two.
P15
Then Zowie! The stink struck again, just like that! Hypothesis two: “It’s caused by the cat.”
The cat couldn’t make such a stink on it’s own. It needed perfume and some fancy cologne. So Young Ada tested. The test was a flop.
P16
She started again, but her parents yelled “STOP!”
P17 - P18
“ADA MARIE! ADA MARIE!
To the thinking chair - Now! By the time we count THREE!”
“Enough!” Said her mother. “That’s it!” Said her dad.
Her parents were frustrated, frazzled, and mad
“Why-?” Ada questioned.
Her mother said, “No!”
“What-?” Ada queried
Her father said, “GO!”
“You’ve ruined our supper! You’ve made the cat stink! Enough with your questions! Now sit there and THINK!” She looked at her parents. Her heart turned to goo. Poor Ada Twist didn’t know what to do.
A consistent complaint with science is that scientists often chase their curiosity without concern for the consequences. They do because they can; and to a lot of people it seems that they never pause and consider if they should.
The conflict in Ada’s story stems from this sense of overwhelming curiosity. She acts on this impulse because she can. She isn’t considering the mess she’s making, nor the distress of her cat and family.
As good parents should, Mom and Dad jump in. It’s easy to see them as a hinderance or antagonists like Miss Greer was in Iggy’s story. It is easy to sympathize with Ada because she doesn’t understand what she’s done wrong. But that’s the point.
Because of the nature of Ada’s character - impulsive and curious - her parents must be active participants in this story. If they are not there, or if they are passive observers, then Ada becomes a whole different kind of scientist - not one you want the children to aspire toward.
It would be out of character for Ada to police her own actions. The other books have not established talking animals, or magical solutions so it would break the rules of the world if, say, the cat turned around and told her to stop thus making her take it’s feelings into consideration. So it falls to her parents to be her moral compass and pump the breaks.
But as we’ll see, they don’t take it to the antagonistic level of banning all science from their home. They send her to the “thinking chair” (a detail I absolutely love). And while she’s there the whole family stops to think.
ACT III
P19 - P20
She sat all alone, by herself in a hall. And Ada, once more, could say nothing at all.
P21 - P22
And so Ada sat and she sat and she sat as she thought about science and stew and the cat and how her experiments made such a big mess.
“Does it have to be so? Is that part of success ? Are messes a problem? And while she was thinking . . . What was the source of that terrible stinking? Ada Mare did what scientists do: She asked a small questions, then she asked two. And each of those led her to three questions more, and some of those questions resulted in four. As Ada got thinking, she really dug in. She scribbled her questions and tapped on her chin. She started at Why? And What? How? And When? At the end of the hall she reached Why? Once again.
P23
Her parents calmed down, and they came back to talk. They looked at the hallway and just had to gawk. No patch of bare paint could be seen n the wall. The Thinking Chair now was a Great Thinking Hall.
P24
They watched their young daughter and signed as they did. What would they do with this curious kid, who wanted to know what the world was about? They smiled and whispered, “We’ll figure it out.”
P25 - P26
And that’s what they did - because that what you do when your kid has a passion and heat that is true. They remade their world - now they’re all in the act of helping young Ada sort fiction from fact. She asks lots of questions. How could she resist? It’s all in the heart of a young scientist.
Now, in my world this is where genius ends for a lot of kids. The parents would have been mad all over again. Ada’s punishment would have been far worse and her creativity would have had to go underground for a while.
Ada’s parents practiced what they were preaching. They stopped and thought about the problem. They observed her. They studied her. They discussed her. And they came up with a solution to help her.
The message here is more for the parents than the kids. Be careful of your reactions. You don’t want to silence your strong willed brilliant little scientist. And I love it.
P27-P28
And as for that smell? What can Ada Twist do but learn all she can with her friends in grade two? Will they discover the stick that curls toes? Well, that is the question. And someday . . . Who knows?
P29 - Copyright
Interesting to note that Ada does not solve the mystery of the smell here. The solution is in the illustration. It’s a mystery for the young readers to puzzle out themselves, which is a nice touch. And just like in Rosie’s story the success isn’t really the point of involving youngsters in STEM - it’s the doing.
It seems to me that Ada’s parents were the real main characters of this story. It was up to them to figure out how to support their very curious daughter and keep her from killing the cat. Their solution was to be more involved in her fact finding missions, encouraging her to seek information in books and to use safety equipment during her experiments - all of this is shown in the illustrations.
MY TAKEAWAY
I loved all three of these books! I think Rosie’s story is possibly my favorite though I relate a little better to Ada. I was the curious messy kid growing up. My parents just shooed me outside and gave me folksy superstitious answers to my “weird”, “wild” questions . . . It was the early nineties the internet hadn’t cropped up in people’s homes yet. You couldn’t just look up an answer to your curious kid’s questions on your phone and they were both blue collar workers too tired to entertain my questions about how rocks are made, or where do bugs go in winter, or why clouds aren’t the same color as the rest of the sky.
Anyway Loved this! This series will be among my comp books for my Jasmine Small Detective series.
I think Ada’s story is really something children can relate to. I truly believe that children are born scientists, curious and questioning and that parents and school squash that out of them with boredom and religion. What do you think! Tell me in the comments!
NOTE:
At first I thought the smell was coming from Iggy’s house because she’s outside when she smells it and you can see the sphinx from the Iggy Peck book in the background. I thought his tower of dirty diapers might still be hanging around. But then I took another look at the illustrations and it’s obvious. A bit of irony for the young readers is fun.
SUPPLIMENTAL:
Examples of science odd. Comment your thoughts below. Suggest more for this list.
BEDTIME BREAKDOWN!
Unfortunately, my daughter was not interested in the any of the Questioneer books. She’s only two so the subjects and vocabulary were a little over her head. I’ll try them on her again in a few years, but for now we’ll just move on.
If you like these books by Andrea Beaty please consider purchasing them from your favorite local book store or renting them from the library.
I’ve been Porsche B. Yeary
I’ll see you on the next page.