Acadia Files

KATIE COPPENS lives in Freeport, Maine, with her husband and two children. She is an award-winning middle-school teacher of science and language arts, and her books include a teacher’s guide for the National Science Teachers Association entitled Creative Writing in Science. Children’s book illustrator and graphic designer HOLLY HATAM loves to combine line drawings, photography, and texture to create illustrations that pack energy and personality. Her picture books include What Matters (SONWA children’s awards honorable mention), Bear is Not Scared, The Boy in the Box, and the forthcoming picture book series Maxine the Maker (Dial, 2018).

"Acadia and two friends learn more science while enjoying a Maine winter. This is the third in a thoughtful series that began with Summer Science (2018). Like its predecessors, this combines a slight storyline with science facts, definitions, and descriptions of experiments using the scientific method. A melting snowman, a floating balloon, a paper-airplane contest, a wait outside in the cold, and a sledding challenge prompt 11-year-old Acadia's questions, which are presented in a present-tense narrative with unlikely dialogue but realistic daily details. Her parents are always happy to help her find answers, offering clear explanations, demonstrations, and encouragement for further experimentation. This outing introduces the topics of climate change, food waste, recycling and repurposing, atoms and elements, buoyancy, aerodynamics, animal adaptations for winter, and the physics of sledding. In each chapter, the protagonists accomplish some activity, one that could be easily replicated by readers at home or in school: listing ways to reduce one's carbon footprint or looking for animal tracks in the snow, for example. The author appends a list of helpful websites for further exploration of each topic. Acadia is pictured as pale and blonde; Joshua is darker, with straight hair, and brown-skinned Isabel wears her hair in two Afro puffs. Experiments, charts, and definitions are hand-lettered and profusely decorated with sketches, and each chapter ends with further questions. Accessible and approachable, a useful tool for science learning. (Informational fiction. 8-12)"