Georgia's Terrific, Colorific Experiment

Title: Georgia's Terrific, Colorific Experiment
Genre: Science Fiction
Author: Zoe Persico
Major Awards: None
Age Group: 1st-3rd grade

This story is about a girl named Georgia. Georgia's family are all artists, and she is amazed by everything they create. Georgia is not like them, though. She loves space, learning about cell structure, and is in awe of what famous scientists have done. She always imagines herself traveling to space and traveling the world to meet famous scientists. Georgia wants to be just like the scientists she learns about, and sets out to create her very own experiment. All of her family members doubt her because all they know about is art. Their doubt pushes her even harder to create an experiment. One day, she goes deep into the forest and starts dreaming about what she can create. She gets discouraged and wonders how scientists come up with their experiments, when she gets an idea. She decides to mix art and science and starts filling beakers with colorful paints and magical potions. In the end, she ends up creating a cloud of colorful air, leaving her family members astonished and so proud of her. 

This book would be a fun one to have in my classroom! It is quite literally "science fiction", and such an interesting read! After reading this book, I could explain the persistence Georgia had to follow her dreams, even if her closest family members doubted her. I would explain to my students to always follow their dreams and not give up on them, even if there are some people who doubt. 

This book definitely would be for grades first through third. It is a longer novel than most picture books with some bigger words and phrases, so I think it would suit these ages well. I also think that these students would understand that this story is about following your dreams and never giving up. Also, I believe that they would be very inspired by Georgia. 

In my classroom, I think that it would be neat to create an experiment similar to the one Georgia created. If my students ran into issues while conducting the experiment, I would tell them to "think like Georgia", and keep trying! I could also have them write about a dream they have for their life and explain how they will achieve that dream. They could also write an essay about how art and science are similar.