Fairy Tale Science

Explore the laws of physics, principles of chemistry, and wonders of biology in this collection of classic stories with a hands-on STEM twist. From Snow White to Chicken Little to Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves—read each story like a scientist! • Determine if a glass slipper can withstand an evening of ballroom dancing. • Explore the buoyancy of a magical frog. • Test the power of blowing air on a house. And so much more! Find out what happens actually ever after! "A lively and captivating book." - Kirkus

The award-winning author of The Most Magnificent Thing introduces the value of science and inquiry to young readers with humor and heart. For fans of Ada Twist, Scientist and Hidden Figures. Esther the fairy doesn't believe in magic. But fairies are all about magic, despite Esther's best efforts to reveal the science of their world. No matter how she and her bird, Albert, explain that rainbows are refracted light rather than a path to gold, or that mist is water evaporating rather than an evil omen, or the importance of the scientific method, her fairymates would rather just do magic. So when the other fairies' solution to helping a dying tree is to do a mystical moonlight dance, Esther decides to take it upon herself to resuscitate the tree . . . with the scientific method, some hypothesizing, a few experiments and the heady conclusion that trees need sunlight to live! But while Esther manages to save the tree, she can't quite change the minds of her misguided fairymates . . . or can she? Fairy Science, the first in a hilarious new picture book series, introduces a charming, determined heroine as she learns about the world and celebrates the joys of curiosity and exploring science.

"Between 1550 and 1650, marvellous stories of women giving birth to animals, young girls growing penises, and valiant men slaying dragons appeared in Europe. Circulated in scientific texts and in the first two collections of fairy tales published on the continent, Giovan Francesco Straparolas Le piacevoli notti and Giambattista Basiles Lo cunto de li cunti, the stories invigorated readers and established a new literary genre. Despite the fact that the printed European fairy tale was born in Italy, however, contemporary readers tend to think of France or Germany as the genres place of origin.Fairy-Tale Science looks at the birth of the literary fairy tale in the context of early modern discourses on the monstrous, and explains how scientific discourse and literary theories of the marvellous limited the genre's success on its native soil. Suzanne Magnanini argues that men of science positioned the fairy tale in opposition to science and fixed it as a negative pole in a binary system. This system came to define both a new type of scientific inquiry and the nascent literary genre. Magnanini also suggests that, by adopting theories of the monstrous as metaphors for their own literary production, Straparola and Basile aligned the literary fairy tale, the feminine, and the monstrous, and essentially marginalized the new genre.Fairy-Tale Science expands our understanding of the early modern European imagination and investigates the complex interplay between scientific discourse and marvellous literature."

Presents a new perspective on Victorian scientific discoveries and inventions; includes a range of Victorian scientific fairy-tales and stories; looks at why fairies and their tales were chosen as an appropriate new form for capturing and presenting scientific and technological knowledge to young audiences; examines a range of scientific subjects, from palaeontology to entomology to astronomy.--Provided by publisher.

Fabre had many scholarly achievements. He was a popular teacher, physicist, chemist, and botanist. However, he is probably best known for his findings in the field of entomology, the study of insects, and is considered by many to be the father of modern entomology. Much of his enduring popularity is due to his marvelous teaching ability and his manner of writing about the lives of insects in biographical form.

"Introduces principles of computational thinking, illustrating high-level computer science concepts, the motivation behind them, and their application in a non-computer fairy tale domain."--Amazon.com.