Briarwood

Written by Natalie Hyde

DCB Young Readers

978-1-770868199

246 pp.

Ages 9–12

March 2026 

 

"Sometimes, inspiration and creativity combine in weird and wonderful ways to produce something unexpected." (pg. 99) 

 

It's whispered that Briarwood is a camp of magic, and Callie Garcia is desperate to go there. When a teacher accuses her of cheating on the entrance test and Smedley St. Claire is selected to go instead of her—though she'd scored 98%—Callie believes her dream of following in the tradition of her grandmother's grandfather, Theo Garcia, is lost. GG Theo was a man of ideas who'd left a journal of scientific formulas and inventions' designs and a final message to "Find Archer." But then the director of Briarwood, a Dr. Archer, intervenes and offers Callie a job as a mechanic and she wonders if she has been fated to attend.

 

Briarwood is a camp in the trees, with bunkhouses, walkways, bridges, and all workings powered by steam. So, while her bunkmates Smedley, Shawna, Hank, Tiffany and Dan participate in activities like swimming, alchemy, ropes, and rocketry, Callie is told she'll be reporting to Mr. Davenport. Instead, it's Dr. Archer who takes her to a treehouse lab where she will be fixing things. But there's also a secret lab which she is not allowed to enter, although Dr. Archer tells her that if anything happens to him she is to hide or destroy the special wrench that will allow access to it.

 

When Callie sees inventions that resemble those in her GG Theo's journal, like a hovering bicycle, she knows there must be a connection. But she's too busy trying to figure out the nature of the special metallic water that powers the machines at Briarwood. She is warned against touching the water ever, and not to tell others about what she has seen. With readings of journals at the lab and that of her GG Theo, as well as with her observations, Callie starts putting together a story or two of deception, surveillance, sabotage, and science. And when Dr. Archer goes missing, Callie with a few bunkmates whom she may or may not trust sets out to save Briarwood and its director.

 

Briarwood is magical, but not magical in the supernatural sense. It's wonder comes from the automated nature of its workings, like food delivery at the table, mechanical chameleons that carry messages, and the zip bridges that appear and disappear. Natalie Hyde has created a weird and wonderful place of creativity and engineering, a camp where ingenuity is encouraged, and young people are challenged to see marvels in the mechanisms within. She has shown us clever middle graders who are neither stereotypes of nerdy brainiacs or unrealistic pre-teens with unbelievable skills or strengths. Natalie Hyde makes Briarwood and the mystery to be solved true to life. Moreover, Natalie Hyde makes science, specifically mechanical engineering and chemistry, a fantastical element to the story. The inventions are amazing and yet possible. Camp Briarwood is a marvel that would captivate any young person with imagination and a sense of discovery.

While many young people will be attending summer camps this year, I doubt any camps will be as amazing as the marvel that is Briarwood. Still, I hope that, wherever they go, they find friendship, challenges, perhaps a little mystery, and a whole lot of wonder, just as Callie did at Briarwood.

Built Like a Bug: How Insects Inspire Everyday Inventions

Written by Anjali Joshi

Illustrated by Kathleen Ng

Annick Press

978-1-834020310

128 pp.

Ages 8–12

March 2026 

 

The natural world has always astounded. From within its plant and animal species, its landforms, its waters, and environmental factors like weather come examples for processes that work for adaptation, communication, farming, and more. In Built Like a Bug, Anjali Joshi, a science educator, focuses on insects and reveals all the ways they inspire important inventions and developments.

From Built Like a Bug: How Insects Inspire Everyday Inventions, written by Anjali Joshi, illustrated by Kathleen Ng

The table of contents to Built Like a Bug demonstrates the complexity of the book's content. It looks at mosquitoes and cockroaches, spiders and leafhoppers, termites and fireflies, ants, hawk moths, dung beetles, and bees and dragonflies. The assortment of insects is only matched by the contributions they have made to innovative research and development.

From Built Like a Bug: How Insects Inspire Everyday Inventions, written by Anjali Joshi, illustrated by Kathleen Ng

In addition to providing basic scientific information like common and scientific names, life and size, Anjali Joshi highlights key features of their behaviour that should be noted. For example, information on how the mosquito effectively jabs an animal and prevents clotting is being used by researchers to reduce pain from needles and to develop synthetic anti-coagulants.

From Built Like a Bug: How Insects Inspire Everyday Inventions, written by Anjali Joshi, illustrated by Kathleen Ng

Silk from spiders is inspiring researchers to develop sutures for stitches, to deliver medicines, to create bullet-proof materials, and to investigate it as a building material.

From Built Like a Bug: How Insects Inspire Everyday Inventions, written by Anjali Joshi, illustrated by Kathleen Ng

Insects are models for farming, for electricity, for flight, for navigation, for medicine, and so much more. They can inform us about engineering and building robots, as well as about energy efficiency and dealing with trash. There is so much information in Built Like a Bug that any reader—or teacher—will be able to get both a broad overview of how insects inspire innovation and the finer points about insects themselves and the research and development they generate. Regardless of the complexity of information, Built Like a Bug is organized so well that it is a pleasure to delve into the material. Tidbits of interesting facts are posted in info boxes called "Bug Bites" and the illustrations by Toronto-based artist Kathleen Ng give colour and details to strengthen the information and to keep the text from becoming overwhelming. Her digital art is specific enough to help convey key information, but it is not so detailed that a middle grade reader would get bored.

From Built Like a Bug: How Insects Inspire Everyday Inventions, written by Anjali Joshi, illustrated by Kathleen Ng

I know kids will enjoy this book, especially those interested in STEM activities, but teachers will adore it. Not only is it a prime example of a non-fiction book for middle-grade readers, offering opportunities for learning and creativity, teachers will appreciate the variety of features, from the glossary, full index, and references to the numerous experiments and activities. Built Like a Bug will give young readers lots to think about and to do, perhaps inspire them to see more within the natural world.

 

The Most Magnificent Team

Written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-1295-3

40 pp.

Ages 4-8

May 2025 

 

The most magnificent little girl and her dog from The Most Magnificent Thing, The Most Magnificent Idea, and The Most Magnificent Maker's A to Z return and they're still making and building but with colleagues now.

From The Most Magnificent Team, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

It's another day of doing for our young maker. She and her pug may do lots of things from helping others, snacking and dreaming but coming up with ideas for new builds is at which the child excels. Gathering her materials for her latest idea she heads down to her working space on the street and encounters another child already there. There's another little girl, this one with fabulous hair buns, a green headband, glasses and a grey cat out on the sidewalk with a collection of materials and the start of a house. Impressed with what she sees, our first little girl invites her neighbour to work with her on her new idea.

From The Most Magnificent Team, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

Although our little girl starts off wanting to take the neighbour's ideas into consideration, the two have very different styles of working. While the girl gets right to work, the neighbour child is all about measuring and calculating and considering and making suggestions for making the idea better but never starting to build her part of the project.

 

Even when the girl just does it all her way, the neighbour girl has criticisms.

 

The neighbor insists her idea will be better.

But that's impossible since the girl's idea is already the BEST.

And you can't make the best BETTER – it's already

THE BEST!

 

From The Most Magnificent Team, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

Not only does the neighbour criticize, but she also undoes the work of the girl. At this point, they huff off and decide to work on their own projects. But they both feel their projects to be mediocre, more "HMMM" than "WOW" so decide to amalgamate. They combine their efforts and help the other and while they still run into disagreements, they find that taking a breath, consulting their canine and feline assistants and rejigging their concept can lead to something even more magnificent than they imagined.

 

They might do things differently, and

they'll probably disagree sometimes, but they

know that whatever they make together is

sure to be MAGNIFICENT.

 

Working with someone can be challenging the first time. You have to take into consideration their ideas and their way of doing things and it might require some compromise and even relinquishing some control. But what happens when your styles of making are drastically different? The little girl in Ashley Spires's The Most Magnificent Team finds out soon enough that it's not just a question of adding a person to the mix. It doesn't mean your workload will be lessened immediately or that it'll be more fun. It sometimes means more work upfront to get to know them, how they work, how they can contribute and how to deal together when the partnership is challenged. Fortunately, Ashley Spires shows how a partnership or team can develop from individuals through disagreement and into compromise and finally lead to success and achievement. While young children will certainly benefit from reading a story about how a team comes together, whether they are working in a makerspace, on a sports team or in a group on a class project, I believe their teachers and parents would also be helped to understand that kids don't always hit it off immediately and that with time they can find solutions for themselves that work. It might not always be the solution we would have chosen, but if it's a solution that works for all, we have to let them try.

From The Most Magnificent Team, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

I love Ashley Spires's stories whether it be her Binky the Space Cat or Burt the Beetle series or her standalone books like Larf and Small Saul. Though her approach is playful, and her illustrations whimsical and bright, she handles tough issues of fitting in and trying your best. In The Most Magnificent Team, Ashley Spires gives us two very different children and helps them find a way to work together, a big goal for everyone. Still, Ashley Spires always keeps it good-natured and lighthearted rather than confrontational or competitive. The kids want to work together; they just haven't figured out how to do it yet. But they do and their collaboration becomes a masterpiece for all, assistants included.

 

Being a magnificent creator can be a solitary activity, whether it be building or writing or something else altogether. But it can be the work of a team and, when a team works together, it can be truly magnificent.

How to Make a Friend

Written by Stephen W. Martin

Illustrated by Olivia Aserr

Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

978-1-328-63184-8

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

July 2021

Most kids would love to know an easy and sure-fire way to make a friend. If only it was as easy as following a set of instructions. Then again, maybe it is.

From How to Make a Friend by Stephen W. Martin, illus. by Olivia Aserr

Where to start? How about the library? That's where our earnest young girl finds a book that she's sure "with the right power tools and a basic understanding of Advanced Robotics" will help her face the challenge of making a friend. She's very meticulous, wearing her lab coat and safety goggles, and even asking her parents before handling plutonium (!). And she knows to make important decisions about the type of friend she wants i.e., what will they be able to do with her, before she gets started. That, and always measuring twice and cutting once, seems like wise advice.

From How to Make a Friend by Stephen W. Martin, illus. by Olivia Aserr

Of course, her friend is not exactly as she envisions. The tea parties, hide-and-seek, and water fights don't exactly come off as planned. (How can a friend bigger than a car really hide?) And sometimes a friend doesn't want to play or wants to play with others, and that's OK. What's not OK is when your friend starts doing the wrong stuff and you need to cut them loose (or switch them off).

Don't feel bad. Some friendships just don't work out...

From How to Make a Friend by Stephen W. Martin, illus. by Olivia Aserr

But trying to "make" a friend may be just the stepping stone this little girl needs to make a human friend that works out a little better.

Canadian-born Stephen W. Martin, now a resident of California (why, oh why?) may couch his tale of making a friend in the premise of a child building a robotic one, but all his advice, from acceptance of their differences, the possibility of them making other friends, and even abandoning them when the friendship goes awry, is all valuable and highly valid. Friendships are not easy. They are a lot of work and sometimes the work doesn't pay off. But there's always an opportunity to learn what you like or don't like in a friend and How to Make a Friend will give kids a chuckle while teaching them important lessons about friendship.

Olivia Aserr, an LA artist of books and animation, gives How to Make a Friend fabulous digital artwork that is bold in colour and shape and daring in its approach. This little girl is fierce. She doesn't just create a life-size friend; she goes big, really big. Even her lab is sophisticated. And she takes every step as a learning moment about what she wants and doesn't need in a friend. Not only is she intelligent, she's astute, and Olivia Aserr asserts this about the child time after time.

While your children may not have the capabilities of making their own robotic friend at home, Stephen W. Martin guides them through a process that will help them make one smartly but in the old-fashioned way.

Think Big!

Written by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Dave Whamond

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-8298-0

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

June 2021

 

For every child who feels hard done by with respect to the space they've been allotted in the family home, Think Big! gives them a quirky solution that thinks outside the box–definitely outside the walls–to acquire that little bit extra of everything.

From Think Big! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Dave Whamond

Jamaal has had it. He's the oldest child in the family–he has two younger brothers and a baby sister–and he has smallest room. He pleads his case to his parents but is told the universal parental response by both.

"Now, Jamaal," said his father, "that's the way it is." (pg. 6)

Jamaal stews on it all day. He fumes, he paces, he plays basketball with his dog, and he ponders. Finally at bedtime, he gets an idea that keeps him up implementing the changes he wants.

From Think Big! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Dave Whamond

With his father's tools, including a jack and a ladder, Jamaal moves walls and the ceiling. He installs a hot tub, a bunk bed, an enormous stereo system and a mega TV.

From Think Big! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Dave Whamond

But the next morning, the real chaos begins when his parents and baby sister awaken in a room the size of a closet, his brother hits his head on the ceiling when he sits up in bed and his other brother's feet are hanging out his window. While Jamaal sips on a juice box as he luxuriates in the hot tub with his dog, his family goes a little crazy. That is, until his dad recognizes the quality of Jamaal's work and asks him to do the same for their rooms.

Robert Munsch and Dave Whamond are becoming quite the duo of picture book collaboration, teaming up for zaniness of the ordinary-gone-extraordinary. With so many working and going to school from home in the past year plus, Jamaal's drive to improve his space may not be ordinary. What is extraordinary are the measures he takes and the enthusiasm with which he engineers his dream room. And Robert Munsch and Dave Whamond take us into that craziness of spirit and endeavour as Jamaal creates the room of his dreams.

From Think Big! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Dave Whamond

Robert Munsch may be all about the silliness, but it's all good fun. There's no arrogance or privilege. Jamaal is just frustrated and decides that he would find a solution for himself, albeit a wacky one. After all, when asked to do the same for his family, he has no problems creating a whimsical home, including a matching one for his dog, that will put the rest of the cookie-cutter homes in his neighbourhood to shame.

With the silliness inherent in Robert Munsch's stories, Dave Whamond gives Think Big! the illustrations that are just as fun and over-the-top as the premise of a kid making his space truly his own. Of course, we know Jamaal can't really move walls but children don't know about load-bearing walls or structural integrity. They know what they'd like in a room and Robert Munsch gives them that–space, TV, bunk beds, and stereo–but Dave Whamond makes it playful and quirky with his pen and ink and watercolour artwork. From the toys in Jamaal's room to the family's pajamas and the dog's antics, using the TV remote, soaking in the tub and dancing, Dave Whamond will leave readers smiling and wishing they could do the same. 

To all the children who wish they could have something more in their room, whether it be space or furniture or fun, Robert Munsch and Dave Whamond's story will encourage them to dream and draw and make–perhaps only with paper, popsicle sticks or blocks–but to always think big. Apparently, if you can think it, you can build it.

Small World

Written by Ishta Mercurio

Illustrated by Jen Corace

Abrams Books for Young Readers

978-1-4197-3407-6

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

July 2019

The world may seem like a big place, formidable at times, often too big to embrace, and sometimes unwelcoming but Ishta Mercurio's Small World shows young readers that the world you make from the people you let in and the places you go is the perfect size to fit your dreams in.

From Small World, illus. by Jen Corace, written by Ishta Mercurio

As a baby, Nanda's world was her mother's arms.

safe,
warm,
small.

From Small World, illus. by Jen Corace, written by Ishta Mercurio

As she grew, her circle grew wider to include her extended family who nurture her with food and play, until she can cultivate her own curiosity with school, playmates and dreams of space travel and engineering.

From Small World, illus. by Jen Corace, written by Ishta Mercurio

Leaving home for college, Nanda moves from locales of "sun-kissed maze of wheat" through "pinecone-prickled mountains and the microscopic elegance of fractals in the snow" to the big city where she helps develop a "human-powered helicopter lifting toward the sky" before becoming a pilot and finally an astronaut.

From Small World, illus. by Jen Corace, written by Ishta Mercurio

Though she's looking at the depth and breadth of the universe with its stars and planets and our world as just a small part of it all, Nanda can still see Earth as safe, warm and small, as "a circle called home." 

Small World reminds us that life is a circle, carrying a child from the safety and smallness and warmth of our very first world in a mother's arms to a myriad of other worlds that overlap and permutate with time, place and content. There's a rhythm here that Ishta Mercurio embeds in her words, carrying Nanda from birth to extraordinary achievement, lifting her from needs for survival to dreams and realization. Moreover, Ishta Mercurio has made it all the more relevant with Nanda's diverse background and her aspirations in science and tech.

That circle of life and of worlds as round as that of our earth is perpetuated by Jen Corace's illustrations. From dinner plates and bubbles, trees and stars, Jen Corace's artwork, created with gouache, ink and pencil, is a study in shapes and angles and geometric form. The illustrations are saturated with patterns of lines and in fabrics, wallpaper, landscapes and structures like roller-coasters, creating a rich background for a girl who aspires and inspires.

A study in perspective and dreaming big, Small World takes Nanda, and readers along with her, on a journey where anything is possible when you create a world that right for you.

Quicksilver

by R. J. Anderson

Carolrhoda Lab

978-0-7613-8799-2

316 pp.

Ages 14+

2013

In Ultraviolet (reviewed here), R. J. Anderson's prequel to Quicksilver, teen Alison Jeffries had been hospitalized in a youth psych facility and receiving treatment after claiming to see a fellow student, Tori Beaugrand, disintegrate.  Though others saw her as acting out and a potential head case, Sebastian Faraday, who'd claimed to be a neuropsychologist, recognized Alison as a synesthete for whom the interconnectedness of her senses was overwhelming.  Moreover, Tori had disintegrated, when a relay (connecting to her embedded transmitter) transported her to a different world, from which both she and Faraday had come originally, and back to the experimentation of Mathis.  Ultraviolet ends with Alison and Faraday admitting that they cared for each other but Faraday staying behind to help Alison and Tori escape back to earth.

As Ultraviolet was primarily Alison's story, albeit contingent on Tori's existence, Quicksilver focuses on Tori and the need to keep her safe from those who would choose to study her "genetics".  Even with a change of name and appearance and a move far from Sudbury for Tori and her parents (who'd always known her history), trusting and staying inconspicuous are difficult.  This is especially so when Milo, a workmate of Tori's, witnesses Faraday's materializing into Tori's bedroom.  By concocting a scenario about an unethical company, Meridian, from which both Faraday and Tori are hiding, Faraday is able to enlist Milo's help in keeping Tori safe, and in helping to find the means to destroy the relay. Sadly but characteristically, there are the recurring misinterpretations of feelings, by Milo, Alison, Tori and others, as they attempt to understand new relationships. 

With layer upon layer of lies, coupled with the otherworldly truths regarding Faraday and Tori, Quicksilver becomes as complicated as Faraday and Tori's attempts to prevent Mathis from controlling them via the relay and its quicksilver, a programmable material.  Refreshingly R. J. Anderson keeps her characters from early success, choosing instead to demonstrate the need for creative thinking and perseverance.  Fans of engineering and inventions will love Tori's mechanical exploits, especially as she needs to use Milo as the male cover for her brilliance (apparently uncharacteristic of females).  And, if scientific intricacies and physics are not your strengths, then perhaps the schemes by which Tori, Faraday and Milo go to protect those for whom they care will have you considering their choices as effective or subterfuge.   Even the most brilliant of them aren't sure how to handle love and its often undecipherable messages. Regardless, Quicksilver has sophisticated plotting at its core, a prerequisite for complex speculative fiction.  Whether it be faeries or physics, R. J. Anderson has no qualms about synthesizing a tight weave of emotions, science and interpretation into a durable and unique story-telling fabric.

Look for my interview with author R. J. Anderson tomorrow, to commemorate the launch of her highly successful UK version of her Faery Rebels' series.