The Nora Notebooks: The Trouble With Ants

Reviewed by: Sally Holt - Raymond Village Library, Raymond, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 23, 2015

Review

4th grader Nora Alper's world revolves around ants. Nora is interested in her friend's dogs and cats but really would like them to be more interested in her ant farms. Frankly they are scared and horrified about the ants. Nora hopes to change that.

Throughout the book Nora brings up interesting informational facts about ants which the reader will find fascinating.

"A worker ant is less than one-millionth the size of a human being. But all the ants in the world taken together weigh as much as all the human beings in the world. See what I mean about how amazing ants are?"

Nora is so knowledgeable about ants she decides to enter her research writings in an article for Nature magazine. Her article gets rejected and she is encouraged to send another when she gets older. I have a feeling that Nora will one day be a credit to women and their love of science.

It is interesting to note that everyone in Nora's family loves science and encourages her to explore her interest in that particular arena.

Nora is also asked for a school assignment to write a persuasive speech and of course she chooses a persuasive speech about ants....can she persuade her friends to love them as much as she does?

Great read for a girl interested in science or may encourage them to become so.

This is a first book in a series.

Overall Book Score: very good