Science Fair Day

by Lynn Plourde, Thor Wickstrom (Illustrator)

Ima Kindanozee likes to know anything and everything going on around her. She always asks plenty of questions. And the perfect day to ask questions is Science Fair Day. But perhaps she doesn?t need to flip that switch on Josephina?s spaceship project, or touch that bone on Dewey?s dinosaur skeleton in order to find her answers. Will Mrs. Shepherd be able to put Ima?s snoopiness to good use before the principal arrives to judge the science fair? This fifth story about the silly students in Mrs. Shepherd?s class has the same endearing and funny chemistry as its predecessors.

Genres: Picture Books, Science, School, Realistic Fiction, Childrens, Humor

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 2008

About the author

I write kids' books--talk about a FUN job! I worked for 21 years as a speech-language therapist in Maine schools. When I got married, I got 3 & 4-year-old stepsons as part of my ready-made family. I read the boys picture books at bedtime. They fell asleep after 2 or 3 books, but I kept reading stacks and stacks of picture books and started to dream . . . maybe I could write picture books. I was already writing educational books (listening & speaking ideas for the classroom), but PICTURE BOOKS--that was different!

Different, and sloooooow! I had 13 years of rejections before getting my first book published, Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud, and I still get more rejections than acceptances--even after having more than 40 books published. So I'm still an author-in-training--learning to be a better author all the time.

I LOVE writing, the whole creative process. I also LOVE sharing my books with kids at schools: doing interactive readings, turning one of my books into a play, and teaching students how to plan and write different kinds of stories (i.e. problem stories, character stories, graphic novel scenes, fables) modeled after my books.

I love to try new kinds of writing such as poetic stories, a biography, a graphic novel, and more. Writing new kinds of stories is a challenge, but it makes writing fun and keeps me interested in the process.

Reviews

[Calista]

Lynn Plourde tickles me, almost always. Her newest book introduces us to a girl named Ima Kindanozee. I love the name. Ima lives up to her last name.

It's science fair project day at school and all the kids have brought in some amazing projects. Ima has to ask questions and get all nosy and she usually ends up making the project have a problem in some way and the student has to fix it. The teacher never tells Ima to stop touching projects and let them be, but its still cute and amusing. I can see the Nephew loving Ima if he were to read this a few years ago. She also is sort of her own force of nature, more destructive than productive in many ways.

All goes well with the story and the end is happy. The results are good and all the kids seem delighted. Ima is great at asking questions. She needs a job that asking questions is essential like a journalist or a product tester. Anyway. Cute story. Thanks Lynn.

[Nancy Kotkin]

Story: 4 stars
Illustrations: 4 stars

Mrs. Shepherd is one of my favorite fictional teachers. It's Science Fair Day at school, but Ima Kindanozee can't keep her mind on her own project. Fortunately, Mrs. Shepherd is a master at redirecting Ima's attention and stalling for time so that the other students can fix the mishaps. In the end, Mrs. Shepherd puts Ima's curiosity to good use. Illustrations extend the text and offer surprises.

[Arminzerella]

It's science fair day in Mrs. Shepherd's class and all of the kids are putting the finishing touches on their projects. Except for one. Ima Kindanozee is making the rounds and asking all kinds of questions of her fellow students, and, unfortunately, leaving many a project in a worse state than she found it. When the school principal comes around to do the judging, they have to send her away a couple of times while everyone scrambles to clean up. But, finally, they're ready, and Ima plays ambassador, taking the principal around and asking just the right questions to allow her classmates to really shine. Her science project may be nonexistent, but her cub reporter skills are dynamite!

There are some pretty sophisticated projects depicted in the illustrations (someone is assembling a dinosaur skeleton!), and the inevitable disasters when Ima comes by are amusing. Will be sharing this one in a "science fair" themed storytime!

[The Book Maven]

Mrs. Shepherd's class is getting prepared for their science fair, and the pressure is on to be "perfectly perfect"...which is hard when precocious student Ima Kindanozee is moving around, poking here, questioning there, and generally creating havoc. Still, even Ima has her uses when she is able to lead the principal around and ask the right questions and help the students show off their perfectly perfect projects.

While not profound or earth-shattering, this is a fun, goofy way to introduce kids to the concept of science fairs and the tolerance needed for inquisitive little busybodies who might one day go on to be great citizen watchdogs.

[Penny McGill]

Lynn Plourde's series of classroom-based picture books have always been in our top ten list of books. They are great to read aloud and each time we flip through them there is something sweet that we discover on the pages. This one grabbed me because 'tis the season for Science Fair and I thought it might inspire a little bit of science thinking. This hasn't worked (a Dear Canada book about the Japanese internment camps is a much stronger draw right now) but we did have a lovely time reading this book over the weekend.

[Taryn]

My girls love this (they're almost-7 and 4 yo). And I think it's fun. It makes me want to homeschool, so we can explore all the science concepts alluded to in the illustrations. I guess I'm a nerd like that. The main character, Ima Kindanozee, is annoying but not so much that I cringe as I read. I'm not sure how the author pulled that off, but I'm thankful, because the girls want to read this book every night.

[Shelli]

Science Fair Day is about Mrs. Shepherd's classes preparations to complete their science projects before Principle Helm comes in to judge them. Ima Kindanozee lives up to her name and her snooping causes catastrophe after catastrophe. I'm not really sure what the moral or message of the story was, but it was an entertaining read.

[Charlyn]

Science fair day seems to be headed towards catastrophe in Ima's class because inquisitive Ima, who is so interested in her classmates' projects that she can't complete one for herself, has a knack for setting things into motion. The text and the pictures both bring humor to this familiar school activity.

[Cecilia]

Too much children-can-never-do-wrong, always-give-the-kid-a-prize, don't-keep-deadlines kind of thinking for my tastes. I did enjoy the moral of the story being everyone has worth no matter what, but I didn't like how the main character was allowed to keep damaging other kids' hard work without retribution/consequence from the teacher.

[Alexandra Cotter]

I think this book would be great to read to your students when they are going to be going on a field trip or doing a big project. It shows how to and how not to act when being able to do fun things like putting on a science fair. It is also a silly book that would make your students chuckle!

[Lupita]

Cute books about the pit falls of a science fair.

[Madelyn Merrill]

Cute illustrations! & a good lesson behind it: never be afraid to ask questions.

[Annie]

This book showed a lot of different things going on in one space and it really showed the aspect of what goes on in a classroom.

[Kerri Harshaw]

A great book to read to children around science fair day! The curiosity of one student in the class ends up in the destruction of many science projects around the room. The young child was full of SO many questions, she helped judge the science projects in her classroom by having students answer the questions she has. A great book to spark curiosity and inquiry among young children.

[Ngoc Dang]

This book is great for introducing kids to science. Kids will have a taste of what a science fair is like. Teachers can have mini science fair in their classes or science experiments. Hands on learning will stick with children more than just lecturing about science.

[Ian McHugh]

Lots of fun happenings at Science Fair. Lovely to have some very cool questions asked in the third person and then answered in such an engaging way. Following Ima around the Fair and seeing the 999 pages of questions really promoted inquisitiveness among my two girls.

[Jungyun]

I like this book.
It teach me that the science is question itself.

[Paula]

On Science Fair Day, Ima Kindanozee proves that she is the most inquisitive student in Mrs. Shepherd's class.

[Shannon]

This was a cute look at some of the various options for science projects. Ima is inquisitive and curious, but the end was slightly disappointing. Ima's kind of documented questioning is a huge asset in STEM fields, but instead of the teacher getting her to harness that for science, she ends up as a journalist. Obviously this isn't a bad field, but it would have been more fitting with the science theme of the book if Ima had found her way into science.