Get caught up in edutaining Mineral Mischief

The Adventures of Joe-Joe Nut & Biscuit Bill, Case #2: Mineral Mischief by Renee Hand, illustrated by Jake Karwoski, North Star Press, St. Cloud, MN; 2011.

Maple Moo’s rare combination benitoite and neptunite minerals was taken from her collection of rocks and minerals.  Which of the suspicious suspects, all friends and fellow collectors, has taken the unique specimen?  Never fear!  Detectives Joe-Joe Nut and Biscuit Bill are on the case of the missing mineral.  While they search for the culprit, they learn quite a bit about rocks and minerals.

Renee Hand has done the unthinkable: She has created a truly “edutaining” book.  Writing about rocks and minerals in a nonfiction book can be dry and inaccessible to everyone but collectors.  Here, Hand has presented a lot of science wrapped in the gift of an entertaining detective story.  The author is adept at including all of the reader’s senses in telling the tale.  I also liked the detail of the acorn on every page number–cute tie-in to the story.  As a bonus, the book includes additional information, vocabulary words with definitions, and experiments so that interest in rocks and minerals generated in the story can carry on after the tale is done.

As a librarian, I think this series would be a terrific addition to the series that cater to readers just getting into chapter books.  Educators (teachers and homeschoolers) will want to use this book; it is written to satisfy the National Science Education Standards for Earth and Space Science requirements.  A picture of the rock cycle, vocabulary, and experiments are all included to provide a variety of visual and hands-on methods of teaching.  “The book also includes various experiments and works on inquiry, creating charts and using variables and constants to determine an outcome of particular rocks and elements,” according to Renee Hand.  You can find more information about the author at www.reneeahand.com.  There you will find a link to more information about the Joe-Joe Nut & Biscuit Bill series.

(Note: A free copy of this book was provided by the author for me to review for World of Ink April ’11 Tour.)