If you have budding scientists in the family that you’d like to encourage, the 7 books in the Einstein Anderson series will help develop their deductive reasoning skills — and keep them entertained and laughing out loud at the same time.
Written by Seymour Simon in the early 80s, the books were re-written by the author and released in 1997. Simon has written over 200 award winning science and nature books and is a Smithsonian Collins Series author. These books were an attempt to engage kids in science at an early age by presenting solid science concepts in a medium that children could understand and enjoy.
Though written for grades 4-6, younger children will love listening to the books on audio tape. Some of the book titles are: Einstein Anderson, Super Sleuth (1986), The Gigantic Ants and other Cases (1997) and the On-Line Spaceman and other Cases (1997).
Adam Anderson, nicknamed “Einstein” by his teacher, is a 12 year old boy who loves science — and solving mysteries. Using humor and puns, in each book Adam tackles 10 science mysteries, each in its own short chapter, and invites the reader to figure out the solution before he discloses it.
All the clues to the solution of the mystery are woven into the story and the reader is kept busy adding up the clues until the end of the book. The science mysteries presented in the series involve such child-friendly subjects as hypnotized frogs, blind rattlesnakes, a universal solvent, disappearing cookies and a howling dog.
In the universal solvent mystery, after being told that someone is claiming to have invented a universal solvent and wants to market it, Adam and the reader are asked to figure out why that’s impossible. The solution is that someone could not have invented a universal solvent because you could not contain it — it would dissolve everything it touched.
The earlier books were criticized for their cliché presentation of an arrogant smart kid winning over the dumb kid, outwitting the bully, and out thinking all of the adults. The books were re-written in 1997 to downplay some of these stereotypes and include computers.
