What do you get for holiday and birthday presents when your aunt is a former elementary school literacy specialist and current elementary school principal? Books of course! I was so excited to find this title as a gift for my four year old niece this year. She has developed a real interest in science lately, and loves to create things. This book does a great job of introducing scientific concepts in a fun and relatable way. The main character CeCe is thrilled to bring her dog Einstein to school for a special science lab where the class is divided into groups and given the same materials to create a treat dispenser for Einstein. As they work together to build their structures, vocabulary words and concepts are explained in a very kid-friendly way. There is a glossary at the back of the book too, with definitions of the terms, and examples of push and pull things you might find at your home. I could see this text being used in the early elementary grades by teachers during a unit on Motion.
I also appreciate that the book features a main character of color, and a diverse group of students in the classroom. It is so important for educators to add books to their libraries and their repertoire of read alouds that feature diverse characters doing normal kid-things so that our students see characters like them, just being kids. I look forward to exploring more of the CeCe books and sharing them with my niece and my students.
