With an excellent combination of facts, art, and fun “Stay Curious and Keep Exploring - Next Level” by Emily Calandrelli (5 stars) (Pub Date: 3/5/2024) is what parents and teachers are looking for in a book of science experiments appropriate for rainy days or classroom science labs for kids.

Good Things: The book is not a “hand it over to the kids and let them have at-it” kind of activity. It’s intended to be experienced together and while some of the experiments recommend an adult for safety purposes, the organization of the book and the facts and details are better together with an adult as well. The text doesn’t hold back. It’s not oversimplified, and I love that the author has highlighted some terms to allow for easier look-up in the back of the book. The illustrations are bright and attention grabbing too, and I especially like that “try-again, generate your own hypothesis” options are provided. This book isn’t a cookbook, it’s a “learn how to think” book.

Opportunities: The denseness of the prose is a bit much for a younger elementary aged child to see and consume independently, even if they are able to grade-level read it. Some young readers are intimidated by larger sections of prose with limited white space/spacing. I would rather sacrifice a few words, or a few experiments to give the words more space on the page. But again, the book would best be used in partnership with an adult so this isn’t a deal-breaker.

Final Thoughts: This will make a great gift, as well as a great addition to any home shelf, or your favorite teacher library. The materials required to complete the experiments are nicely listed out, and are for the most part inexpensive and/or easy to find (or even just laying around your house). This book, and it’s predecessor, are some of the best experiment books to come out recently and Emily/The Space Gal is a great role model and cheerleader for young scientists.

I appreciate the opportunity afforded me to have an early read of this story by netgalley and Chronicle Books, Chronicle Prism. The opinions in this review are expressly those of ButIDigressBookClub and are intended for use by my followers and friends when choosing their next book. #butidigress #butidigressbookclub #staycuriousandkeepexploring #staycuriousandkeepexploringnextlevel #emilycalandrelli #thespacegal #emilyswonderlab #stem #chroniclebooks @chroniclebooks #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #arc #arcs

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Review Shared on Goodreads - www.goodreads.com/leah_cyphert_butidigressbookclub
Publishing Review 3/3/2024

This is a really great book for my science-obsessed 7 year old. I love how the experiments are broken up into categories. The intro to each experiment as well as the additional content at the end really enhances each activity. I love that it is both fun and educational. Well organized and colorful, the book makes the experiments approachable. The bubble section is our favorite and we love the Portal to Another Universe activity. I do wish that the activities didn't require the purchase of so many specialty materials. There were a few experiments we were very excited to try, but would require us to order a few materials or make a special trip to the store to get them. If I could have relied more on typical household items to do the majority of these activities this would have been a 5 star book. I am grateful that Emily Calandrelli is inspiring the next generation of female scientists with such great content.

So So Good! Just like her other book and with everything she does, this is beautiful, well thought out and incredibly informative. I'm so glad someone like Emily is making science and stem accessible and fun for kids!

This book is packed with opportunities to expand the imagination, creativity, and knowledge of science principles and experimentation. As with previous books in this series, children ages five through twelve are provided with diverse subjects and opportunities to use all their senses to learn science. They can become superheroes, use food substances, glitter and glow, work with the environment, and share experiences with friends.

Calandrelli presents clear instructions, lists of materials, scientific principles, and a glossary for those tough terms to understand. This book is invaluable for use in planning science fair projects, rainy-days at home, or a classroom group project.

Recommended for any parent or teacher of curious children in elementary or homeschool school. Adults will have fun engaging in the activities along with students.

I love that this book is approachable for kids who are curious about science, as well as for the parents who will have to help them set up the experiments. The descriptions for each experiment are written to cultivate curiosity and to encourage experimentation, with the understanding that we all make mistakes, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying. As a parent, I appreciate that most of the experiments use materials that I already have in my home and don’t require a lot of set up or take a significant amount of time. I have books that I cringe in fear every time my kids take them off the shelf because I know we have a giant mess and likely a disappointing outcome in our near future. That’s not the case with this book though. I’m actually excited to take this book home and give it a try because I’m confident that we’ll have fun and learn something in the process. Not to mention, the writing is so kid-friendly that I’m pretty sure my kids could even manage some of the experiments on their own.

Another great science experiment book - lots of options that require more or less time and materials. We tested the indoor skydiving experiment and it was a big hit!

I loooooooved this!! This is the exact thing my daughter would love to sit and pick out all the things she wants to try. It’s educational yet fun and has just as many experiments that kids can do on their own. I loved how they were broken into categories as well. Such a fun and scientific book, we need more!!

We love Emily in this house, so when I saw she had a new book out I knew I wanted to check it out. The book is full of so many fun experiments for kids of different ages. I'm a former elementary school teacher and currently homeschool my own kids. This book would be a great resource for both the home and the classroom. There is a great balance between background science, connection to real life, and the actual instructions for the experiments. The book also makes it clear which experiments require adult supervision and which ones are appropriate for children under 5. One thing that I would have liked is more pictures/visuals to accompany the instructions. Overall, this is a great book for curious kids.

I’ve already preordered and can’t wait to show the physical copy to my kiddos. It is full of awesome experiments that are engaging and will spark anyone’s curiosity!

Thank you for letting me sneak a peek before it is sent out!

This book has fun science experiments that kids and grownups alike can do. The experiments are broken into categories and denote which are great for young scientists and which experiments require an adult lab assistant. Each experiment includes some fun facts, a conversation with a young scientist and Emily about the experiment, and some even include some ways you can modify the experiment. While I haven't tried any of the experiments, the instructions appear easy to follow and give some helpful tips. This book would be great for families to do together over the summer. Highly recommend for families with elementary aged children or with aspiring scientists.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I love Emily! Her first experiment book was awesome and this one looks just as amazing! I love the set up of these books. Her explanations and information is top notch. I love the illustrations as well. I know my kids are going to love trying these new experiments! Can't wait to see what Emily does next!

Am I 29 years old who had zero plans on this Friday night an hour ago? Yes. Did I stumble upon this book and love every page… and about to go to my nephews house to do some of these with them?!? Omg yes! I’m a women in stem.. electrical engineer.. cough cough. 😉 everything about this book so perfect, so fun, SO much good information. So many things I’m excited to learn! The pages are full of color and beautiful. The content is not overwhelming. I can’t wait to buy a hard copy for my nephews to keep. Thank you Emily Calandrelli for making perfect content for our future scientists and engineers!
Thank you NetGalley for the arc copy!

Ebook received for free through NetGalley

I hadn’t read her previous book but follow the author on instragram and love her account. When she posted about this book I found it on NetGalley and just skimmed through it. I found it really neat! I love all the experiments and love that they range from super simple I have the ingredients to more exclusive. The layout with the images, introduction, and questions for each experiment is perfect. I’m seriously debating preordering this for my girls.

Thank you NetGalley, Chronicle Books, and Emily Calandrelli for this early release copy of this book!

We absolutely love Emily in our house! She's such an amazing role model, so incredibly relatable, and so fun for the kids to learn from. The experiments in this book are so fun and great for introducing lots of different scientific information and ideas to our kids. I can't wait to see what else you do!

4.5 ⭐
I was already a big fan of Emily Calandrelli (mostly from her social media content)--so when I saw she was releasing a second, hands-on children's activity book, I was so excited!

I appreciate Emily's mention of self failure as a grade school student in the Introduction. I also struggled with test-taking anxiety, being the "gifted kid", and later feeling guilty about both when attending university. I think that this is a great point to bring up with children about how scientists are in no way superhuman. She truly makes the reader feel safe, welcome, and encouraged to explore science!

This book is packed full of activities, ranging from spooky science to outdoor nature experiments and includes sections like "Make A Hypothesis", "Who To Know", and "Did You Know?" side-bars to promote further discussion. Most activities use household materials, but my only fault with this book is that some of the required experimental materials are specialty and would require ordering them online (which could be difficult for some).

Would love to this resource being well-used and loved in the home for young scientists, or even in the classroom!
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Thank you Net Galley and Chronicle Books for the ARC! 🚀

This book was so adorable, I loved everything about it, the illustrations were so well done, they suited the book perfectly, the story was amazing as well. I’m sure the kids are going to be just as enthralled with this amazing book as I was. I will definitely recommend! Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this early copy

The first book was great and this one is too! My kids love the colorful illustrations and the fun experiments. I liked that there weren't a bunch of unique ingredients to buy and many of the experiments have things we have around the house. This makes science so approachable and fun for kids!

I’m really not sure what makes these experiments next level, bigger or bolder. I have to admit I was expecting something a little more extreme or cool. These are classic science experiments for kids like sticking pencils in a plastic bag filled with water, “floating” a ping pong ball over a hair dryer, and making rock candy with sugar water on wooden skewers. They are divided into chapters and most of them don’t need a lot of supplies, though you may have to buy some supplies like alum, a black light, borax, etc.

The book is very colorfully illustrated but I really wish it had photos of the experiments or at least drawings of the steps. I really prefer to see what the experiment will look like, including the set up and steps. This just has one basic cartoon drawing that doesn’t really help visual learners. It’s still a fun, educational book though.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book for review.

The perfect rainy day activity book! My kids (5 and 3) could not wait to start the experiments. There were a lot of them that didn't need much prep at all which was great for a last minute activity. The experiments were straightforward and easy to follow.