My son’s high school marching band chose F1 as the musical theme for next school year. There will be some Formula 1 props that move around, lots of trumpets, drummers doing their thing and kids with oodles of musical talent. The only thing I know about Formula 1 is that I regret not going to Monaco Gran Prix when I lived outside of Monte Carlo. Wait, I also know that F1 is coming to theaters in 2025 and that the cars are shaped very differently than stock cars. STEMville: The Fast Lane is the latest in the STEMville book series. It manages to entertain ages seven and (way) up, without making it too babyish for the younger readers, while not insulting the older readers who are learning something new.
“But, I don’t want to learn anything about Formula 1” I can hear elementary school age children whining like Napa Valley grapes jealous Meghan Markle’s tears from here. * This is the genius of the STEMville book series and others like it. They are books that introduce a topic that you might only have heard about, but are willing to look at an illustrated book because the pictures look engaging. Flying Eye Books understands the assignment and has an incredibly high ratio of entertaining books that they release.
STEMville: The Fast Lane is a modern book; a couple of the anthropomorphic animals have a cell phone, and the advances in F1 race cars occupy lots of space on various pages. However, a glance at the book reveals its timeless appeal. From the slightly thicker-than-average pages that are comforting to touch, to the detailed layouts that resemble a Where’s Waldo book and the vast business of each page the book crosses generations. The Fast Lane is released in 2025, but if you increased or decreased the technological innovations, it could be relevant in 2075 or 1975. The level of enjoyment and overall fun that kids will have digging into the book will remain consistent regardless of when they thumb through it.
We often talk about the intelligence of illustrated books. I tried to share this idea with a fellow high school ELA teacher. While they agreed with me about the need for kids to start reading at a young age, they couldn’t follow the depth of how instructive illustrated books can be.
Can a 50-something dude pick up the illustrated book and objectively learn something? Can a seven-year-old kid look at the same book, not think it’s for babies, and then learn something? Is it possible for either age to simply look at the book and enjoy it, without feeling like they need to learn something? That’s parallelism for any high school audiences out there.
Frankie Thunderfoot is an anthropomorphic rabbit who races Formula 1. She gives us a tour of her car, pointing out that the one you or I drive has 30,000 parts, but her F1 race car has 80,000. Wilbur is another F1 racer whose multi-hued green car matches the patches on his turtle shell. He demonstrates F1 concepts like overtaking and slipping by, while Frankie retorts by adjusting her cars’ wings open or closed, which allow her to go 10 miles faster.
As technical and educational as STEMville: The Fast Lane is, there’s also a strong narrative that young readers will find themselves invested in. The book follows what happens in a typical F1 race: crashes, DNF (Did Not Finish), pit stops, bad weather, horsepower, G-force, braking, team work and more. All of these things happen during the race with one team finishing first, thankfully it’s not Frankie or Wilbur’s team…..The Fast Lane ends with an acknowledgment that it’s important to slow down too. We see Wilbur and Frankie taking the day off, watching the sunset and sitting beside a lake with a mountain view.
It’s a book where you can read one page and be perfectly happy, but you’ll probably want to read more. The illustrations are younger skewing, but not too young to where upper elementary ages will avoid. The text is intelligently written, but not at such a high level that it’ll intimidate anyone. Look at the inhabitants of STEMville, how you could you not want to open the book and see more of them?
STEMville: The Fast Lane is by Ben Newman and is available from Flying Eye Books.
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*I used that phrase in class the other day and nobody got it, but it made me laugh.
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