I’m a Neutrino, STEM-based, illustrated wonderment for ages 4-8

Assuming that an illustrated book is fact-based, and not some interpretive trip about what a cloud looks like, adults shouldn’t need to be told what it’s about, should they? Ah, dear reader, these are times when board books can be about quantum physics and illustrated books can tell true tales about things that you never learned about in school. So, no, sometimes adults will read an illustrated book and still have no idea as to how to describe, talk about or understand what they just read, but that’s ok. In the end, we all want this generation to be smarter and better than us, don’t we? To that end, I’m a Neutrino, Tiny Particles in a Big Universe is a beautifully illustrated book about a tiny thing that you’ll never see, yet there are billions of them zipping around us at any moment.

In her continued efforts to emasculate me, my wife immediately knew what a neutrino was when I asked her. She casually listed that it was just a particle that had a neutral charge, thus the name, originates in space and flies everywhere. Sorry sweetie, I missed the Neutrino meeting. It makes sense now, I just never knew that there were so many of them, and frankly speaking, it unnerves me to think that particles are flowing through my body on a daily basis.

If you’re an adult who thinks like that then I recommend that you read the final two pages of the book. Those pages examine the book by looking at every two-page spread, which is more esoteric and dreamy, and presenting them in a way that’s more precise and understandable. Once I read those pages the book was much easier to understand, as well as being one that could be read to k through third graders.

I’m a Neutrino has the brilliant and large-scale paintings that makeup illustrated books. Its rhyming text builds upon the cadence that the reader establishes during their session. While it might not be an everyday phrase, it also has the STEM-tastic wonderment of letting young readers use their imagination as this previously unknown particle comes to life. The book also allows those young readers to see themselves as the ones who could eventually determine the mass of neutrinos, figure out how they travel or something even more wonderful.

In a way, it inspires us the same way that Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke did with their 2014 music release, Animal Tales. That was kindie rock that educated and entertained in a way we haven’t heard since. We specifically loved Bear Song, a song that we still listen to quite often for many reasons. That release, with its fabulous songs about animals, from a story and educational perspective, will probably inspire one of today’s young listeners to study wildlife. Perhaps that person will even figure out why panda bears don’t like to have babies in zoos.

I’m a Neutrino is for every kid aged four through eight. Some of those readers will be curious, ask themselves questions and decades from now recall some book written by someone with a Ph.D. in physics that started them down this rabbit hole. It’s much more approachable than you think it is and it’s a book that just might get you adults thinking too.

I’m a Neutrino, Tiny Particles in a Big Universe is by Dr. Eve M. Vavagiakis with illustrations by Ilze Lemesis and is available on MIT Kids Press, an imprint of Candlewick Press.

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