Marshmallow reviews Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions by Fred Estes

This week Marshmallow is talking about Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions, written by Fred Estes, illustrated by Kavel Rafferty, and published first in 2022.

Marshmallow reviews Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions, written by Fred Estes and illustrated by Kavel Rafferty.
Marshmallow reviews Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions, written by Fred Estes and illustrated by Kavel Rafferty.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like non-fiction books that are both informative and inspiring, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): This book is composed of several parts. It starts off with a warm, welcoming introduction that matches the tone of the rest of the book. Then there are six chapters in total, which are each around twenty to thirty pages long—they are relatively quick to read due to the large font and highly comprehensible writing. In each chapter, the author presents a young protagonist and the problem that they faced and / or wished to resolve. The author describes their process and the innovations and inventions they made, highlighting the experiences of young people in STEM.

Essentially, each chapter is a story about a young person who invented something successful that helped the world. The six stories are “Jack Adraka and His Improved Cancer Test,” “Gitanjali Rao and Tethys, Her Lead Detection Sensor,” “William Kamkwamba and the Windmill,” “Austin Veseliza and the Talking Glove,” “Deepika Kurup and Purifying Water through Sunlight and Science,” and finally “Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Oscar Vasquez, Luis ARanda, and Stinky, Their Champion Robot.”

I cannot choose one that I liked over the other because I loved reading about all of them! However, William Kamkwamba’s windmill struck me as especially remarkable given how limited his resources were and how he taught himself most of what he knew! (Incidentally, William Kamkwamba is 39 years old today, and his life continues to be impressive. You should definitely check out his two TED talks at https://www.ted.com/speakers/william_kamkwamba.)

These stories show that there are people who are driven to do good at such a young age! I also liked how the book ends with an inspiring call to action. The author describes problems in the world, but says that one can always take action to fix them. I hope to be like them one day!

Marshmallow is reading Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions, written by Fred Estes and illustrated by Kavel Rafferty.
Marshmallow is reading Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions, written by Fred Estes and illustrated by Kavel Rafferty.

Marshmallow’s Review: I really liked Teen Innovators and I would highly recommend it to any and all readers because it is a fun, fascinating, and fulfilling book!

I read Teen Innovators during a time when I was starting to think about STEM as a career path. I am still not fully decided on a specific path, but this book really shows how STEM can be an extremely powerful force for good. I liked how this book highlighted inventors and innovators who are around the same age as the people who will read the book (most likely!) This is really inspiring.

More specifically I would highly recommend Teen Innovators to all who are worried about the future and feel disappointed in humanity. Even though humans do a lot of bad stuff and there is indeed a lot to worry about, books like this and people like the ones in these true stories show that there is a lot of good in the world, too! 

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions, written by Fred Estes and illustrated by Kavel Rafferty, 100%.
Marshmallow rates Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions, written by Fred Estes and illustrated by Kavel Rafferty, 100%.

Caramel reviews Spy School Blackout by Stuart Gibbs

Caramel has read and reviewed all books in the Spy School series by Stuart Gibbs, so he could not pass the opportunity to read and review the thirteenth book that just came out last week: Spy School Blackout. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Caramel reviews Spy School Blackout by Stuart Gibbs.
Caramel reviews Spy School Blackout by Stuart Gibbs.

Sprinkles: I know you could not wait to talk about this book today! 

Caramel: Yes! We got a new Spy School book! How cool is that? 

S: Very. Okay so this is book thirteen, right?

C: Yes, in fact it is. And a very good thirteenth at that, most things are no longer good after the first ten books or movies, for example fast and furious.

S: Caramel, you have not even watched one of those movies! I did. Actually I did not think it was terrible. It definitely kept me paying attention. 

C: Nope, I don’t know the movies, it is true, but I’ve heard it got bad after the first two.

S: Yes, I suppose critics did not like them. But the studio keeps making them so lots of people must be watching, don’t you think? Doesn’t mean we would like them of course. And anyways, I think your point was that this book is still very good even though it is number 13 in the series. 

C: Yep, it is very very good

S: So tell us about it a bit. I am guessing it is still about Ben Ripley. 

C: Yes. In this one, the group is in Indonesia to take a vacation, and then the power goes out.

S: Oh, that is interesting. I had read the quick summary which said “On their latest mission to save the world, Ben and his friends face a conniving villain, assassins, pirates, sharks, and very big lizards in the most remote—and deadly—location of any spy school yet!” And I was wondering where that most remote and deadly place was. So they are in Indonesia!

C: Yeah, but the power is not just out in Indonesia, but around the whole world, everywhere.

S: I guess that is why the book is titled “Blackout”. 

C: Yep, you are pretty smart, Sprinkles!

S: I am humbled and honored. Anyways. So the power goes out everywhere. How could that happen? Who could have done such a thing? Power networks around the world are not all connected, are they? 

C: Birthday cake.

S: What do you mean?

C: it’s apparently the code word for a precision attack on the power systems.

S: So someone simultaneously attacks all the networks. I am guessing it is a cyber-attack, like a virus or something. 

C: Yep, pretty much.

S: Hmm, that sounds terrifying. Remember how a few days ago we were talking about how we get to stay up after sunset because we have electricity and can still read or do other things at home even when there is no natural light? 

C: Yep, I do remember us talking about that. 

Caramel is reading Spy School Blackout by Stuart Gibbs.
Caramel is reading Spy School Blackout by Stuart Gibbs.

S: I cannot imagine there not being any light at night. And the fridge would not work, either! Oh my goodness, that would be horrible too.

C: Yep, it would be almost world ending, or saving at the same time.

S: Wait, are you suggesting the person or group that does this has some environmental ideals and that is their reason? 

C: No, not really, they are just evil. But I was thinking just that since humans rely on power so much, if it disappeared, the carbon emissions would decrease by a huge amount and then maybe forcing us to find a way around it, but would also cause all infrastructure to fail, and most likely make many people die from either hypothermia or too much heat. And all the machines in hospitals would stop working once the generators ran out and so on. 

S: Yes, people could still probably use gas-based cars and generators, but so much of the world we know would collapse. That is a terrifying scenario, Caramel. Okay so that is the basic idea of the book, then. But I am guessing our hero Ben will figure things out?

C: I shouldn’t really give it away but I suppose it is no big secret. After twelve times when the world was about to end Ben saved it, you would expect he would do it again.

S: Phew! I wonder how he does it. But don’t tell me. We don’t want to spoil it for our readers. 

C: Yeah, I guess we don’t. You and our readers, too, will just have to read the book! 

S: Hmm, I also might ask you after we wrap this up?

C: Hmm, we will see how much I will tell. 

S: Okay, we will see. But overall you really enjoyed reading this book, right? Compared to the other twelve, how do you think it would rank?

C: I think this might be my favorite so far!

S: Wow! That is impressive. Maybe I will read the book after all. Okay, I suppose it is time to wrap this up then. What would you like to tell our readers, Caramel?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunnies reviews!

Caramel was delighted to read Spy School Blackout by Stuart Gibbs, and is hopeful that there will soon be a fourteenth book, or at least maybe a graphic novelization of some of the earlier books.
Caramel was delighted to read Spy School Blackout by Stuart Gibbs, and is hopeful that there will soon be a fourteenth book, or at least maybe a graphic novelization of some of the earlier books.

Marshmallow reviews An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

The book bunnies household have learned a boatload of chemistry from Hank Green’s Crash Course Chemistry series on YouTube. So they all were excited to discover that Green had also published a couple of novels way back when. This summer, first Sprinkles, then Caramel, and finally Marshmallow got their paws on the first of these books, and once started, could not put it down until they were done. Today Marshmallow shares with our readers her thoughts on this book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, first published in 2018.

[Starting this week, we are moving our weekend posts to Sundays. We hope you will continue to follow us with our new schedule.]

Marshmallow reviews An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.
Marshmallow reviews An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like science fiction books that are fun, fascinating, and feel almost real, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): April May is an artist. Unfortunately, after going to a private art school, she is now in a lot of debt. Working at a start-up under a very bad contract, April is struggling to find time to make her own art. Her appreciation for true pieces of art is what draws her attention to Carl. While this may sound like the start of a romantic relationship, it is anything but. Carl is a giant, ten-foot-tall, metal sculpture that appears one day on a sidewalk in New York City. Late at night, April walks by it and—thinking that it must be the work of a fellow artist—coerces her friend Andy to record her in a video highlighting how wonderful the piece is, despite the lack of interest from the other passersby. They post this video on YouTube and go to sleep.

The next morning, April and Andy wake up amidst a maelstrom of news. It turns out that sculptures just like Carl (which is the name April used during the video to describe the sculpture in New York) suddenly showed up all over the world; there are sixty four of them in total, all standing perfectly still in plain view on sidewalks in major cities. The news and the Internet are reeling in confusion. Security checks and video surveillance cameras in each area where a Carl appeared went dark for five minutes before the sculptures showed up. The rather impossible, illogical arrival of the Carls leaves the world in need of an explanation.

Since April was the one who “discovered” New York Carl, she becomes somewhat of a celebrity. Soon, she and Andy start raking in thousands from their video and interviews. The attention, especially on social media, is overwhelming, but April’s sort-of girlfriend (Maya) helps her cope, advising her to slow down the speed at which April is exposing herself to the world. But the overwhelming attention is also addictive; to keep it coming, April and Andy hatch a scheme to keep themselves poised as the go-to experts on the Carls. April, Maya, and Andy all met at their art school and are all experts in designing brands. April decides that she will brand herself as the curious, yet calm human person in contrast to the other-worldliness of the Carls. And I mean that literally. Miranda, a material scientist at UC Berkeley, reaches out to April and they realize that the characteristics of the Carls cannot physically exist because there is no existent or create-able material that matches it. The Carls must have come from out of this world!

As April and Miranda work together, they start realizing that there are sequences, or puzzles, that seem to be left by the Carls for humanity to solve together. Many of them are in the Dream, a shared experience that almost every human on the planet starts to have during sleep. The Carls have yet to say a word, yet the world is holding its breath. Driven by ambition, curiosity, and a little bit of arrogance, April May plans to be the one who uncovers why the Carls are here and what they really are.  

Marshmallow is reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.
Marshmallow is reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.

Marshmallow’s Review: This was an absolutely remarkable book (see what I did there?) I would highly recommend An Absolutely Remarkable Thing to all readers to read at some point. However, it is not quite appropriate for young bunnies because it does use a lot of bad words and it does make a lot of references to sexual activity (though, luckily, none is shown!)

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is both intensely entertaining and fast paced, but it also is also very thought-provoking. At the beginning of the book, I did not enjoy Green’s style too much, but I became more accustomed to it later on. His writing is very smooth and the story never has a single lull. The plot is fascinating and literally keeps you hooked until the end. Green builds a world around you and it is very hard to disassociate from it while you are reading. Green makes the book feel so real that there were times I stopped reading and forgot that there are not, indeed, Carls in the real world.

I think Green exceeded all expectations for a first-time writer. He excels in all standard aspects of storytelling, but I think the thing that stood out to me the most was the philosophical part of this book. The main character is definitely not perfect. She is very dis-likable, which I think is a testament to Green’s prowess because one ends up on her side at the end anyways. Every person in this book is so real and flawed and truly human that this could actually take place right now. Part of what I think made this book so realistic was the consistent themes of social media, celebrity, and people’s need for attention. I kept thinking of how much of Green’s own personal experience in the virtual world was reflected in the book.

I was mildly annoyed that An Absolutely Remarkable Thing ends in a cliffhanger because I wanted to know how things really end. Though many of the mysteries were resolved in this volume, there are a lot more that were not. Green wrote this to be the first in a two-part series so I am probably going to have to read the next one too! 

April May, the main narrator, is a very honest yet blunt person. But I really liked how, through April, Green managed to make a convincing argument for humanity. I loved how he showcased both the bad and the good of characters and of humanity as a whole. There are a lot of too-real moments that mimic what politics and some industries look like now. I think overall An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a work of art because it takes every broken, ugly part of humanity and glues it together with the beautiful parts to create something that is glaringly imperfect yet honest and meaningful. 

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green 100%.
Marshmallow rates An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green 100%.

Caramel reviews The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape by Amy Alznauer

Today Caramel reviews an intriguing and colorful picture book: The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, written by Amy Alznauer and illustrated by Anna Bron. Published in June 2025, this beautiful book was recommended to the book bunnies by a long-time friend of the blog: thank you, you-know-who-you-are! As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions.

Caramel reviews The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, written by Amy Alznauer and illustrated by Anna Bron.
Caramel reviews The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, written by Amy Alznauer and illustrated by Anna Bron.

Sprinkles: Today we are talking about another picture book, written by Amy Alznauer. We reviewed another book by her a while back.  

Caramel: Yes, I remember! That was a cool book, too; it was about a mathematician who thought about beautiful number patterns. This one is about a woman who discovered a new pentagon.

S: A new pentagon? How does one discover a new pentagon? I mean, pentagons are five-sided geometric shapes, and there are infinitely many of them. 

C: So yes, there are a lot of different types of pentagons, right? So she just found a new type. Pretty cool, right?

S: Yes, sounds cool, but I am still not sure I understand. Among the infinitely many different pentagons, the one she found has to be special somehow to be important. 

C: So, let me try to say it more carefully then. She found multiple new types of five-sided shapes that could cover the whole plane.

S: Oh, I see. So she found a new tile! I know about these! The problem is if you have a bathroom or a kitchen and you want to tile it with tiles, then in the hardware store, they usually will have square tiles, because squares tile the plane. That means you can use square tiles to cover a surface without leaving any gaps. It turns out that you can use hexagonal (six-sided) tiles or triangular (three-sided) tiles too. But these are the only options if you want to use regular tiles. That means each side has to be the same length and the corners in the angles should be the same. Here is a nice picture, showing the angles meeting at a corner for the three regular tiles:

Image from https://pappagallodifermat.blogspot.com/2012/07/ma-che-bel-pavimento.html
Image from https://pappagallodifermat.blogspot.com/2012/07/ma-che-bel-pavimento.html

C: Yeah, so when she learned about this, she wondered why not five-sided tiles.

S: The math does not add up with five sides, at least if you want regular tiles, with the same side lengths and corner angles. See:

Image from https://pappagallodifermat.blogspot.com/2012/07/ma-che-bel-pavimento.html
Image from https://pappagallodifermat.blogspot.com/2012/07/ma-che-bel-pavimento.html

C: Cool, I think I understood it a bit when reading the book, but these pictures help me understand it better. So let us keep them for our readers, too. Hopefully it will help them too. .

S: Sure. So all of that means that regular pentagons don’t work. So then she must have found a five-sided shape that can still tile the plane. That sounds really cool! 

C: Yeah, I agree. It looks like a crooked house! And she kept playing with different crooked houses in her head until she found one that worked. It is really cool. And the pictures are also very interesting. 

S: Yeah, I had a chance to look over the pages of the book, too, and agree with you. It is very colorful, and shapes of all types are all over the place. It is visually a very satisfying book. 

C: Yep. 

Caramel is reading The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, written by Amy Alznauer and illustrated by Anna Bron.
Caramel is reading The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, written by Amy Alznauer and illustrated by Anna Bron.

C: So the book does tell us a bit about all the people who worked with this tiling problem you described above. But I wondered why this Marjorie Rice was the only woman among them, and no other women were mentioned other than her.

S: Hmm, you know, this is kind of a challenge for many people who want to encourage everyone to be more expansive about how they think of just who can do math. It seems that throughout human history, the mathematicians who made names for themselves have almost all been men. So I think Marjorie Rice’s story is a very interesting one, not only because the math she did is fascinating but also because she is a woman who did not become a famous mathematician, but while going about doing her life – she was a homemaker – she just happened to find a mathematical problem so interesting that she could not stop thinking about it. And she found a really neat solution to it, too!

C: Yeah, it is really cool, isn’t it?

S: Yes, I agree. This all reminds me of this article I read about what it means to be a mathematician. The author, a cool math blogger, basically says that you find mathematical problems interesting and you give yourself the freedom to work on them. 

C: Huh, cool, I like that! It means I could be a mathematician, too, if I found a problem that I could not stop thinking about and just kept at it. 

S: Yes, exactly. It is about curiosity and keeping at it. 

C: But maybe I want to become an astronaut instead?

S: Well, that is part of the point of the story, right? You don’t have to be a professional mathematician to do math. You can be anything else, and also play with math on the side. You know, some of the very famous mathematicians we still talk about today did math as a hobby. Like Pierre de Fermat, who was a lawyer but also did a lot of very interesting math on the side. 

C: Hmm, that is interesting… I am not sure I want to become an astronaut by the way. I like this planet too much, and as a tiny bunny, being in orbit is kind of intimidating. 

S: Yeah, I think you are very much planted on this planet. Me too. But you think reading about space is cool, though, right? 

C: Yeah, it really is. Hmm, I have not reviewed a space book recently. 

S: Well, you did just review Space Case: The Graphic Novel. 

C: True. And that is a really good book by the way. But I was kind of hinting toward another space book review coming up soon, wink wink! 

S: I know! Okay, maybe we should wrap this up because it is getting close to your bedtime. What would you like to tell our readers as we end this post Caramel?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, written by Amy Alznauer and illustrated by Anna Bron, and is now looking around himself to see if he can find new hexagons.
Caramel enjoyed reading The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, written by Amy Alznauer and illustrated by Anna Bron, and is now looking around himself to see if he can find new hexagons.