BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
Book Title: Ada Twist and the Perilous Pantaloons (available here)
Author: Andrea Beaty
Illustrator: David Roberts
Publisher: Amulet Books
Publication Date: April 2019
Most Suitable for: KS2
Reviewed By: Jacqueline Harris (@phonicsandbooks), Education Consultant
Ada Twist asks questions – lots and lots of questions, all the time. Ada ask questions like why does hot coffee smell stronger than cold coffee? and why does her brother Arthur get so annoyed when she comments on his smelly feet? In this story her group of three friends, known as the Questioneers, must try and save Rosie Revere’s flying uncle Ned, who is floating away with his helium filled pantaloons.
This book is filled with larger-than-life characters and madcap escapades, all wrapped up in a science lesson or two. It is hard to say if this is a science book with a story running alongside or a story with added lashings of science; it certainly does not seem to fall entirely into the fiction or non-fiction camp. What it does do is to make learning science incredibly fun and engaging and it explains complex ideas in a very accessible way.
Ada, together with her friends Rosie Revere and Iggy Peck, overcomes obstacles through science. Inserted in the book are wacky diagrams of the scientific principles as well as pages that are made to look like the pages from real non-fiction books (such as ‘The Nerd Bird Guide to Birds for Nerds’ and ‘Air! What’s up with that?’) in order to explain ideas in more detail and to break up the narrative with a more serious explanation. It is this mix of the zany with serious that makes this book so effective.
Some of the language is American in style and there are some phrases and words that children may not know, such as popsicle and bahonkus (it means rear end and I had to look it up!).
Ada Twist and the Perilous Pantaloons is a very entertaining romp through science that is an easy read and would make most children not only laugh out loud but also want to go and try out some of the experiments too.
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You can order Ada Twist and the Perilous Pantaloons online or from your local bookshop or library.
Many thanks to the publisher for sending us a review copy of this book and to Jacqueline for reviewing it.
