Science Fair Season: Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch . . . and What It Takes to Win by Judy Dutton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m already thinking about all the people I know that need to read this book.
Science Fair Season strikes a wonderful balance between the stories of the 11 competitors it follows, each with a different set of challenges to overcome and support to get there, and the research and science of their projects.
It’s the story of a science fair, but not one like what you would see at your local elementary school every year. This contest is nationwide, and has exhibits from teens that take their science very, very seriously. They produce patentable work and research breakthroughs that get the attention of adults working full time in their field.
Each of these kids has a story.
In some cases, it is a story of true genius that needs to be directed in a productive direction, before it explodes (that was a little too literally true in the case of the young man obsessed with building his own nuclear reactor).
Others are kids who have shone in some other area, never dreaming that science would call to them (One girl had a well established acting career that she thought would be her future!).
Some are just average kids, up until the moment they found a question that caught their interest, and an adult willing to help them look into it.
And a few are kids with the deck stacked against them– a girl with a diagnosis of a terrifying disease, kids from a school at a “juvenile correction facility”, kids from an Indian reservation with a terrifyingly high poverty rate.
Science Fair Season takes the science seriously, and it takes these competitors seriously. It is a book which is extremely readable by anyone with an interest in the next generation of scientists, as well as anyone that likes a good story of determination and effort, and where it can get anyone that really, really tries.
I requested an electronic galley of Science Fair Season from the publisher through NetGalley. Thank you to Hyperion Book and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book!
