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Summary
Summary
It's summer vacation, but twelve-year-old Raksha isn't doing much relaxing. There is one project left before her Science Squad team earns their last badge (and a trip to Hawai'i on the line!), when she gets an opportunity to attend a highly competitive fashion camp that is too good to pass up. It isn't long before her Science Squad work hunting for zombie bees is taking over her life. She hardly has time to prepare for her fashion camp runway show. Can Raksha pull it all together and prove that she can be both a fashion queen and a science geek? Welcome to the Science Squad, a citizen science organization for curious kids who love nature and science! Follow along as Squad members journal their efforts to make a difference in the world around them.
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Twelve-year-old Raksha's varied interests in science and fashion pose a problem for her summer schedule. How can she find time for the Science Squad's important work tracking the zombie bees while participating in a competitive fashion camp? After much struggle, conflict, and hard work, Raksha and her mostly helpful teammates incorporate fashion with science to bring awareness to the real threat of the parasitic zombie fly's (Apocephalus borealis) to honeybees and win the national Science Squad competition. Written as an illustrated journal, this title chronicles one girl's struggle to balance her varied extracurricular interests, while imparting a good deal of real science. VERDICT Rashka's story may help readers find creative ways to blend varied interests, navigate their own social conflicts, and solve real-world problems. A solid addition to most collections.-Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, Tampa and Polk County Public Schools. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Twelve-year-old Raksha Kumar has a "fashion brain" and a "science brain." Her science-geek self has to complete a final project over the summer to earn a badge (and, potentially, a trip to Hawaii). With her Science Squad, a citizen-science organization for children, she must find bees that may be infected with parasites, collecting them and watching them for signs of infection. But her fashionista self wants to attend Junior Fashion Camp at the same time, which she believes is her "golden ticket, the way out of all nerd-dom and into being recognized as more than a future lab nut." By the end of a whirlwind summer, biracial Raksha realizes that she doesn't have to choose between her two passionsand that "no one cares" if she is "two different things. Indian and Chinese, fashion and scienceeverything can coexist peacefully." Raksha tells her story in journal form, with the occasional crossed-out word or phrase adding zest, and she includes factual sidebars ("Honeybee queens are treated like babies, not royalty. Workers get to travel outside the hive, but queens stay inside, laying eggs"). Olbey's black-and-white illustrations also offer readers additional ways to engage with the story's science. They also, sadly, perpetuate the misinformation that feral honeybees live in wasps' nests. This lead title for a new, middle-grade nature- and science-focused series features a mixed-race protagonist whose ethnicity isn't the main thrust of the narrative. Companion title Hatchling Hero publishes simultaneously, recounting a young Latina's involvement in sea turtle rescue.Informational and curriculum-friendly, a decent choice for fans of other STEAM-themed tales. (additional facts, glossary, bibliography) (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
