Spin the Golden Light Bulb is a great book, and it's really amazing that it's a debut. I love books about girls and science because they're not very common. This book is all about reaching your goals, staying inquisitive, being creative, and working as a team. I loved it.

This book is such a positive book for young girls. It shows that boys and girls are equal, and girls can be powerful thinkers! I already have several shy and smart girls that feel like they need to dummy down to be accepted that I will strongly recommend read this book. I Spin the Golden Light Bulb it will have a positive impact in their lives.

I received this book from #netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kia , the heroine of the story has an opportunity to get into the school of her dreams if only she can win the Golden Lightbulb. Her grandmother did it and she hopes she can to despite coming from a school that is viewed with some disdain and not considered a contender.

She and the other members of the team must learn to work together to meet the challenge and solve the problems that they encounter. These are good lessons for middle grade students to read about.

Kia is not perfect, she has difficulty with friendships and getting to know people. She demonstrates what it means to persevere and not be daunted and how to handle different challenges in interpersonal relationships. Something many young people who read this book will be able to identify with.

My only wish is that the story had moved along a little faster but that is a personal preference otherwise I recommend it.

Spin the Golden Light Bulb is a debut middle grade novel centering around the brilliant minds of a group of young inventors. It touches on topics such as teamwork, forgiveness, and loyalty, and how to include those values in the achievement of personal goals in the area of one’s passion. It encourages having a mind that is open to all possibilities and to the acceptance of other people. Images of strong relationships—both with friends and family—and learning to come together to achieve a goal in a fair and inclusive way emanate from every page. This is a delightfully wholesome novel for young readers that stresses some incredibly important and positive messages.

In this novel, we are transported to the year 2071, and follow an eleven-year-old girl named Kia Krumpet. Kia is desperate to earn a spot at Piedmont Inventor’s Prep School—or PIPS—so she can begin working on her sixty-seven inventions. But in order to secure her place at PIPS, she must first win a Golden Light Bulb in the Piedmont Challenge, a feat that has not yet been accomplished by any student at Crimson Elementary. If she doesn’t, she will have to choose one category of study to dedicate the next six years of her schooling to, none of which would allow her to achieve her dreams.

After Kia and four of her classmates end up winning the chance to compete for enrollment in PIPS, they travel to Camp Piedmont, where the next phase of the challenge is to begin. There, everyone competing is split into groups and are given a task that they need to solve through the creation of a unique invention. Kia’s group—The Crimson Five—must contend with teams from forty-nine other states and build something that will prove that they have the talent necessary to earn a place at the best inventor’s school in the entire country.

Forming strong, healthy relationships with others is a key part of this narrative. There are many internal obstacles that Kia and the others must overcome in order to accept each other for the way they are. In addition, we are shown the importance of being one’s self and staying true to one’s values. There were times where I felt that Kia was maybe being a bit too immature compared to how she presents herself most of the time. However, this ended up highlighting how much she changes and matures throughout the course of the narrative.

Yeager’s writing itself is very strong and easy to read. Her voice is absolutely perfect for the age of the readers this novel is meant for. She does a brilliant job of vividly creating a fun and distinctive world that stimulates the imagination. The technology is very unique and exciting to envision—almost magical. Yeager’s characters are multi-dimensional and clearly evolve through all the obstacles they must face. The way she portrays the team gradually learning to work together as well as forming trust and, ultimately, close friendships is fantastic.

One problem that I had with the plot of the novel was with the believability of the team’s first approach to creating their major invention. These kids are supposed to be some of the brightest minds in the country, capable of not only building, but imagining all types of gadgets and groundbreaking technology that will power the advancement of society.

Kia’s previous ideas for her own personal inventions are complex and innovative, and they show off her natural skill and remarkable intellect. However, what the team eventual decides on for their major invention is honestly pretty disappointing. It just felt as if they were not showing much if any of the amazing talent that they all clearly possess. It’s hard to believe that their big idea would manifest in the form that it does.

Now, please bear with me for this next part. I do realize how silly this is going to sound since this is a middle grade novel, so I apologize in advance.

I’m left feeling conflicted over my biggest issue with the plot—the ultimate invention they create for the contest. At first it feels like a really neat idea, giving us a unique way to look into the past and learn in detail about any person in history. Being able to essentially bring the past back to life and explore any individual’s role in society would be incredible. However, the invention itself quickly takes a turn for the worse, feeling quite creepy and disturbing rather than uniquely fascinating.

There is a fine line between innocently gaining knowledge and invading privacy, and this quickly descends into the latter category. It becomes particularly concerning when Kia and the rest of the team use their invention multiple times to access records of things like private phone conversations and incredibly personal information.

Everyone’s right to privacy is a very topical discussion, and this novel is an eerily realistic potential future. This story raises the question of what parts of our lives are acceptable to be made public in a database and what parts should be kept out. It delves into an extremely morally gray area under the guise of a fun and innovative creation by a group of highly intelligent young minds.

On top of all this, they don’t actually come up with any of the real mechanics of the invention—they end up taking a previous team’s creation and dressing it up a little bit. That left me feeling very disappointed, as it completely wipes out the most important messages Yeager is trying to convey through this story. The importance of thinking outside the box, being creative, and achieving a goal through teamwork cannot possibly be shown through what they end up doing. Even the initial project they come up with at least demonstrated those themes much better.

Are these things that a young reader in this book’s target age range would notice? Most likely not. These thoughts are just a mixture of my typical over-thinking and my admittedly very cynical adult view of the world. I am definitely not the right audience for this particular novel and I completely realize that.

Overall, this is a good book for children in the range of maybe eight to eleven. It promotes topics that are essential to learn from a young age, and this story is an imaginative and entertaining way to encourage people to open their minds to all possibilities and understand that they all have the ability to do great things. This is not a novel that will necessarily be enjoyable to people of any age, but I would recommend this to young readers due to the positivity of most of the messages at the center of this story.

I love NetGalley for giving me such gems from time to time. Spin the Golden Light Bulb is a debut novel of Jackie Yeager and what an exceptional middle-grade novel it is! I was involved in the story from the first page itself..

From the blurb, you can get that the story is set in the year 2071. This is the year when people travel by aero-car and the students are not called by their name but the number at their school. This is a story about Kia Krumpet, number 718, and her journey for chasing her dream to enter in Piedmont Inventors Prep School (PIPS) – her dream school. She studies in Crimson Elementary school where no one has ever won the Piedmont challenge. But Kia wants to win that because her grandmother Kitty was the first-ever person to win that challenge. Her grandmother was her role model from her childhood and Kia wanted to be everything like her. Kia manages to secure a place in the team to compete in the Piedmont challenge. At first, she had travel connecting with her group members but slowly they form a good friendship and move forward towards achieving their common goal.

Kia’s team is called The Crimson Five (hence the series name) because her team was the only one to have all the members from the same school. Each of them has different traits. Jax is the calm one with always a computer with him trying to research about making apps. Marianna(Mare) and Jillian are the talented girls but Marianna is the one with almost foul mood. Ander is the naughty one and later becomes Kia’s best friend. I liked how Jackie Yeager has curated the team of children, each with different hobby and passions. Though the common goal of each of them is same, they want to achieve it differently.

Be Curious. Be Creative. Be Collaborative. Be Colourful. Be Courageous.



There were many good things for middle-grade students to learn from this book. Jackie Yeager has thrown many useful information here and there. There is a sentence when Kia is talking about pi and then she is talking about how petroleum should be saved. I think, mentioning such things were really innovative. Kia has been shown as a determined and strong girl which gives inspiration to children to be more like her and try to achieve their dreams. Children need to know that being smart and intelligent is actually a necessity in today’s world. While most of the parents force their children to be good in academics, being creative is also important.

Jackie Yeager has also told the value of friendship and teamwork through her characters. If you have good friends you can achieve any thing you thrive for and if you have a good team, no matter how bad the condition is, you will make something out of it. These are the real important traits that children these days should definitely learn. At certain moment, Kia is loosing her confidence in herself. This tells you that it is okay to have these kind of moments too. But you have to fight back and have to emerge as even stronger.

I loved the imagination that Jackie Yeager has put into the whole story. And the cherry on top is that the imagination is in fair amount. You won’t feel as if it has been over done. There were magical things like aerocars, robotic monkey, sparkling rooms to eliminate negativity, floating gameboard, hidden cameras and many more. None of these felt over the top and perfectly fit the story. I would really like to applaud the author for all this creativity and to thrive children to actually think about such amazing things. In the beginning of each chapter there are different illustrations. I really liked those illustrations. Though not all the illustrations were unique, but they beautifully captures the essence of each chapter in the book.

Final thoughts
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I am nearly 30, still I loved this middle-grade book so much. In my opinion, this is a must read for all the middle-grade children. I was amazed by the book’s inventiveness and that too in the right amount. I loved the central message that the author is trying to portray- With friendship and teamwork, you can win any day. At first, I was not ware that this is actually going to be a series. Now that I know, I can’t wait to read the sequel and to follow the Crimson Five on their next adventures.

What a pleasure to find a strong, female protagonist, and to find her paired with the desire to persevere and seek out learning. Her character shone through each page and made this a hands-down winner to purchase for my pre-teen daughter. Elements of mystery, competition, and a race to the finish made this book a page-turner.

Futuristic novel about a girl with big dreams. I can't say that I loved the book, but I do believe that my students would really enjoy it.

Blog review to follow!

I recently reviewed a book in the following way: I have been an avid reader from a young age. Because I was born after A Wrinkle in Time was published, I have never had a shortage of brainy heroines who save the day. I am lucky enough to be teaching middle school in an age where real women past and present are being recognized for their achievements in fields where men have usually reaped all the glory. While I teach my students about these mostly unsung heroines, I try to entice female students to get more involved in STEM activities.

This book has won a place in my classroom library, where the protagonist, a brainy inventor, will have a space in a shelf with other middle school heroines.

A fun, quick read. The characters are quirky, and I like the focus on math and science.

Spin the Golden Light Bulb by Jackie Yeager is a captivating story told by 6th grade Kia Krumpet. She wants to get into Piedmont Inventors Prep School (PIPS). To accomplish that, she and four other students from her school must work together and come up with a solution to a task given to them after they arrive at Camp Piedmont. Kia overcomes many struggles and decisions throughout the book. This story is right on level with middle-school kids and struggles they have, such as working together, making friends, and working through their own feelings. Yeager does an excellent job weaving a story of emotions, fun, creativeness, and inspiration together.

Be Curious. Be Creative. Be Collaborative. Be Colourful. Be Courageous.

Spin the Golden Light Bulb is Jackie Yeager’s debut novel. I’ve been having lots of luck finding brilliant debut novels recently and this middle grade novel is no exception. Jackie Yeager takes us on a journey to 2071, where people travel by aero-car and kids are referred to at school by their number, not name.

Kia Krumpet’s number is 718, she has an ex-best friend and no one at her school, Crimson Elementary School, has ever won a Golden Light Bulb in the Piedmont Challenge. If Kia doesn’t secure one of the coveted Piedmont Challenge positions, she won’t be able to enrol in her dream school, Piedmont Inventors Prep School (PIPS).

Instead, she’ll face programming like everyone else, and she can’t imagine anything worse. Programming determines which one of six academic categories sixth graders will study for the next six years - Art Forms, Communication, Earth and Space, Human History, New Technology, and Math.

Kia has dreamed of attending PIPS since discovering her Grandma Kitty won the first Piedmont Challenge. Kia has a list of 67 inventions she wants to create but unless she is successful in gaining entry to PIPS she’ll never have the chance.

I loved so many things about this book:

* The fact that the main character is a young girl who strives to be given the opportunity to attend the school of her dreams

* Being smart is a good thing!

* Being good at more than one academic area is a great thing!

* While academics is really important, so is character and creativity!

* It’s okay to be passionate about anything - inventing, mechanics, art, whatever you love

* The creativity of all of the inventions described is wonderful and makes your brain smile

* The kids, especially funny, loyal and forgiving Anders

* Learning to be a good friend, family relationships, loyalty, teamwork, forgiveness, working hard and having fun are all explored

* Nacho Cheese Ball. I guarantee you’ll want to try this sport when you read about it

* The writing style. I found myself slipping into this world very easily and found the characters interesting and relatable, and the plot engaging

* The illustrations. Gabrielle Esposito has really captured the essence of the book in her illustrations. They’re fun, imaginative and correspond well with what’s happening in the chapters.

My only real grumble with this book is that the separation of tasks whilst making the set piece and costumes was so clichéd. The girls made the costumes and the boys made the set piece. I had some hope when Mare knew about the best types of wood to use because of her experience with her father’s constructions work, but when it came time to build and work on the mechanics of their project it was a job for the boys.

I came away from reading this book wanting to strive to achieve my goals (and to believe in myself while I’m working towards them), to be a better friend, to have more fun and to add Jackie Yeager to my ‘read this author’s next book regardless of the blurb’ list. The way this book ends leaves plenty of room for a sequel, which I’d be very interested in getting my hands on.

Favourite sentence: “Being courageous is the opposite of what it means to conform.” (28%)

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and Amberjack Publishing for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

It is the year 2071. Kia Krumpet, an ambitious 6th grader who wants to build her 67 inventions, is starting the Piedmont challenge, that no one has ever won from her school. This challenge will determine her future studies, but also the chance to win a place in the Piedmont's Inventor School, which is her goal.

Going through the challenge with Kia we feel her anxiety, excitement & determination. Of course we all want the "underdog" to win, but Kia really makes you root for her, from the get go.

While reading I would find myself stopping to create the images the author presents us in my mind, that is how engaging they were. I also like the name of things. Grandma Kitty's sayings are also so quotable, as are many sayings from the camp. Legitimate life lessons.

Inspiring & delightful, it reminds you not to quash your dreams due to other people's disbelief or indifference. The importance but also the difficulty of teamwork, and the undenying beauty of friendship

I  recieved a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.
I loved this book! I love the inspiration it creates and the message to always follow your dreams.
The friendships in this story were heartwarming!

This is middle grade novel that deals with creativity and accomplishing goals.
I won't be describing the book because I don't want to spoil it but it was fun, different, very interesting.
I did had the problem that I found a bit slow, things didn't happen that quickly. Probably for the audience the book is intended would work. But overall I found it enjoyable.
As for my reading experience I will give this book a 2.5/5.

The year is 2071. Kia Krumpet is a young girl driven to win a place in a championship to avoid being programmed into a course and destiny she doesn't desire. This book is intriguing although it didn't quite catch me. It has an underlying message that you can achieve what you long for through hard work, determination, team work and a willingness to adapt or change. Family secrets are uncovered but to say how would give too much away.

My 8 year old didn’t warm to this book as I think it was not fast paced enough to keep his attention

This was another wonderful middle grade book that I'm so glad that I was able to read. It was a wonderful chance to get lost in a world where kids want to do well and are moved to figure out their best way to make things happen.

The friendship that was embraced between these kids and the hard work that they had to portray was a story of determination, fun, and love.

I think this is a great story and one that should be shared and read by many.

I like how inspirational it is because it promotes that we should always strive to achieve our goals and dream. Being creative, inquisitive, not following the norm, being cooperative, and dauntless are just some of the lessons that kids will learn on this novel. If you are looking for a present to your child who is in middle grade or if you want him to read more – this book is a highly recommend.

Fun middle grade read that emphasizes teamwork, creativity and STEAM subjects. In the future, Kia advances in an academic competition to eventually work with a team of students to advance to the national championships. The ultimate reward is to be exempt from mandatory placement in strict categories of study that determine your future and future occupation. The tasks set before the teams are like Odyssey of the Mind challenges on steroids. The plot gets a little bogged down in minutiae from time to time, but overall enjoyable and recommended especially for STEAM interested youth.