Review: Edie's Experiments 1: How To Make Friends

Edie is ten-and-a-quarter years old and she absolutely loves science. In fact, Edie loves to experiment in every aspect of her life, even her family's breakfast choices. Her family are completely used to her scientific ways, and some of Edie's best memories from her old school are of the amazing experiments she conducted there. So, when Edie starts in Year 5 at a new school, she figures there is no better way to make friends than to bring along her science kit and start experimenting. Unfortunately, things don't turn out quite the way Edie planned.

Author, Charlotte Barkla, has created a lovable character, who enthusiastically gets herself into awkward situations, leading to laugh-out-loud humour. Edie is energetic and inquisitive, approaching everything with scientific gusto, including her often disastrous attempts to make new friends.

When Edie manages to cover her class in slime, make them ill from apology cookies, and accidentally insult the school Principal, she can't imagine how things could get worse. But they do! Fortunately, Edie's persistent scientific efforts and her kindheartedness do eventually shine through.

Illustrator Sandy Flett, conveys fun and movement, bringing to life Edie's enthusiasm for experimenting and her vivid imagination, with such fine examples as the Before Lunch and After Lunch images of the Science Fair Trophy, and the Detention Room Expectation versus Detention Room Reality sketches. Flett is also known for her illustrations in the Juno Jones series.

Edie's Experiments 1: How To Make Friends will appeal to middle grade readers who have ever tried an experiment that didn't quite work out, like trying to make a new friend. This is the first book in the Edie's Experiments series, with a second book scheduled for release mid-2020. Charlotte Barkla is also the author of the positive picture book, All Bodies Are Good Bodies.

Title: Edie's Experiments 1: How To Make Friends
Author: Charlotte Barkla
Illustrator: Sandy Flett
Publisher: Puffin, $14.99
Publication Date: 4 Feb 2020
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760891770
For ages: 8 - 11
Type: Middle Grade Fiction