Made by Maxine by Ruth Spiro - ADVISABLE

Made by Maxine by Ruth Spiro, illustrated by Holly Hatam. PICTURE BOOK. Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin), 2018. $17. 9780399186295

BUYING ADVISORY: Pre-K, EL (K-3) - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Maxine’s class is having a pet parade and she is determined to find a way to let her pet fish participate. Luckily, Maxine is good at building things and she has lots of ideas for making her fish mobile. Many of these ideas do not work at first, but she keeps trying and makes the perfect mobile tank for the class pet parade. 

It took me a minute to put my finger on what was different about this book, and the conclusion I came to was that I don’t see a lot of STEM books with cutesy illustrations. A lot of the books with strong tinkering girls have a more mature aesthetic, but this one has a curious girl and cutesy pictures. I think this will prove to be a great primer for young readers on mechanical girls. 

Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher