BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
With British Science Week just around the corner, today we feature ‘Max Einstein – The Genius Experiment’, the story of a teenage girl who uses science to solve problems. Read on for a review, a set of classroom resources and a giveaway to win one of 5 copies of the book!
Book Title: Max Einstein – The Genius Experiment (available here)
Author: James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
Illustrator: Beverly Johnson
Publisher: Young Arrow / Penguin
Publication Date: October 2018
Suitable For: Upper KS2
Reviewed By: Natasha Kendrick, Year 6 Teacher
Review
Introducing Max Einstein – child genius and number one fan of Albert Einstein.
A thirteen year-old girl, living on the streets of New York, Max knows nothing of her past. Max doesn’t have many friends but thankfully, conversations with her namesake, the famous physicist, mean she is never alone. Conscious of her prodigious abilities but also her social standing, Max intentionally underperforms at college to blend in with the crowd. Outside of college Max devises crafty inventions to help the plight of her homeless companions.
A turn of events sees Max recruited by the Change Makers Institute and sent to Jerusalem. Here Max finds herself in competition with other bright-minded teenagers to win the ultimate prize of solving the world’s greatest problems – using science. Unbeknown to Max, evil is pursuing her in the form of a mysterious doctor….
The Genius Experiment is bursting at the spine with scientific trivia in the form of facts, theories and outside-the-box thinking. Einstein’s relativity and Newton’s motion are thematic to the story. At the back of the book there is a section that explains these further, in child-friendly language. There is even a recipe for slime! Throughout the book are sketches of Max’s notebook drawings, which depict her ideas and innovations.
I would recommend this book for Year 5 and 6 readers. I expect it to be especially inspirational to young girls who enjoy science. It is refreshing to see a young female scientist as the main character, whose adventures could just inspire the next generation of budding scientists. Watch this space for the sequel!
Curriculum Links: Science, inventors
You can order Max Einstein – The Genius Experiment online or from your local bookshop or library.
Resources
You can download a set of classroom resources to use alongside book here. The resource pack includes teaching notes, discussion questions, cross-curricular activities and a set of hands-on scientific experiments (perfect for Science Week and beyond!).
Download the Max Einstein Resource Pack PDF here.
****Book Giveaway****
Thanks to the publishers at Penguin, we have 5 copies of Max Einstein – The Genius Experiment to give away to our followers!
To enter, simply follow @booksfortopics on Twitter and retweet the giveaway tweet by 11.59pm Thursday 7th March 2019 (T&Cs here).
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You can order Max Einstein – The Genius Experiment online or from your local bookshop or library.
Many thanks to the publisher for sending us a copy of this book and to Natasha for reviewing it.