Welcome to the Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad #3: The Law of Cavities Blog Tour!

Follow along as we celebrate the release of The Law of Cavities (October 11th) with behind-the-scenes looks from author Valerie Tripp, plus 5 chances to win all 3 books in the Izzy Newton series!

The Gravity of Cavities Both Literal and Metaphorical: 
Parenting—and writing about—middle schoolers with kindness and humor as they work through the challenges of braces,
anxiety, changing friendships, self-consciousness, and crushes
by Valerie Tripp

I guess the best thing that we can do when we’re parenting or writing about middle schoolers is to remember that time in our own lives. For example, I bet you remember YOUR first day of middle school, right? I do. And I bet you remember your outfit, too, just as I do.  Middle school is the source of those nightmares about forgetting your locker combination, getting lost while changing classes, and being late to class. Sixth graders are pleased and proud to have advanced out of elementary school, but they’re also nervous about new-to-middle-school challenges like meeting kids from other elementary schools, not being in the same classes as their best friends, keeping track of a schedule, and trying out for teams and clubs.  Middle school is about literally and figuratively finding your way. As a writer, such affect-laden moments are pure gold—though they’re challenging to parents! I knew that middle school was the perfect setting for these STEM stories because middle school is a giant scientific experiment in which every kid tests hypotheses about how to navigate it every day. They pack their backpacks with tolerance, compassion, drive, hope, creativity, energy, and a scientist’s way-of-being-in-the world, which is full of wonder, both in the sense of curiosity and awe.

But it’s been a long time since I was in Middle School, so for up-to-the-minute advice, I called upon a panel of experts: my wonderful Lunch Bunch! I met them when I went to speak to their school and we just hit it off. They’re the bright, bouncy girls at St. John the Evangelist School in Silver Spring, Maryland who inspired me with specific ideas for stories, such as when they spoke with insight, empathy, and kindness about Izzy’s fear of public speaking, and who provided me with creative and clever solutions to help Izzy overcome that fear in Newton’s Flaw.  They told me, “There’s no way around her nervousness; she just has to walk through it, but with friends, and family on either side!” My Lunch Bunch girls, who said that what they hate most in the world is being falsely accused, inspired me with Maddie, the junior counselor’s action in The Law of Cavities. They hate injustice and cited many instances of being falsely accused about which they are still angry. On the other hand, they are empathetic and kind, too, and so are our Squad girls. One Squad girl says, “I don’t want to do to Maddie what she and her friend did to Izzy about ice hockey: ganging up and being mean. I don’t want us to be bullies.” And Izzy says, “Yes, and you know, in spite of everything I do feel sorry for Maddie. We didn’t dye her hair green, but something did. I wonder what? If we could solve THAT mystery, it may not be curtains for our STEM team idea.”

With my Lunch Bunch girls’ help, I’ve learned that we’re not meant to be perfect—that sounds like completion. Instead, we’re meant to need each other and help each other. Really, THEY set the whimsical, friendly, sincere, “smart girl” tone of the series and gave the stories authenticity and heart. Every time we met, they informed, delighted, and encouraged me. I’d bring animal crackers and questions, and they’d bring enthusiasm, insights, and answers. They are an extraordinary group: I was blown away by their empathy and kindness for others. And wow, were they smart! They totally got the metaphorical connection I love to make: that in science there are lots of false starts, explosions, messes, mistakes, disappointments, and what seem to be failures, just as there are in your life and friendships. Science shows us the importance of paying attention to those goofs and disappointments. The Lunch Bunch girls spoke time and again about how mistakes are common, and that it’s what you decide to do after that matters.

What surprised me most in doing my research and talking to current-day middle schoolers was their thoughtfulness. I met with and Zoomed with several middle school science classes and then just chatted, and I was very impressed with their self-awareness. Their age-appropriate insouciance was balanced by a familiarity with anxiety that took me by surprise. While I remembered feeling at 11 the same push-me-pull-you ambivalence toward crushes and relationships and sophistication and the same intense emotions about friendships, current middle-schoolers showed far more self-knowledge. My Lunch Bunch girls taught me, “When we feel uncomfortable we say, “That’s not for me.” And they’d hold their hand up, palm vertical, to signal, Stop. The middle schoolers surprised me—and filled me with hope!—with their broad-mindedness. As we spoke, I saw that they didn’t believe in divisions between abilities. That is, they know that artists must use the principles of STEM to create, just as scientists must be just as creative as artists are. The students were way past wasting time buying into stereotypes of gender, such as that boys are more physically active, louder, stronger, and more mischievous than girls. Hah! As my Lunch Bunch girls would say, NOT.

The title The Law of Cavities is a play on Newton’s Law of Gravity. In physics, Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation says that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. In Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad: The Law of Cavities, I make use of the most obvious definition/manifestation, which is that gravity is the natural force that makes things fall down, toward the earth—into a cavity, sometimes! And I talk about tides as the result of the moon’s gravitational pull.

But I love that I could use the meaning of gravity as attraction both literally (see above) and metaphorically. In the case of the latter, if you think of attraction as friendship or interest in another person, how cool is it that attraction is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the particles’ centers, if you think of a person’s “center” as her soul, as what matters most to her? In the story, I tried to show that with humor, kindness, energy—and applied science—we can find out that there’s not such a great distance between ANY of us, as it may seem at first. I love how the “subjective” mystery has to do with a cavity in the sense of a rift between people. Instead of internecine warfare, we have had so far, mostly between Allie and Marie, this time it is someone outside the Squad who is in initial conflict—on the other side of the yawning cavity of incompatibility—and is won over by the Squad’s scientific knowledge. And the Squad is won over by this person’s skill at something they’ve been dismissive of. We see that the Squad girls are kind, in addition to being smart. I love the themes of girls supporting girls, of surprising benefits of odd talents or interests, and of finding things in common with the most unexpected people.

I also loved that I could refer to the meaning of gravity as seriousness, as in relation to the impending doom of the development of Camp Rosalie Edge. Also, there is often a conflict—sometimes with funny results, sometimes with grave results—between those who take being in the outdoors seriously and those who do not take it seriously enough. A resource for me was: The Ultimate Survival Manual: 333 Skills That Will Get You Out Alive by Rich Johnson and the Editors of Outdoor Life, especially the first section, which deals with “Wilderness.”

And let’s not forget “cavities” in the area most familiar to young readers: their teeth! Izzy has just been to the orthodontist and has been fitted with braces. She has been warned to be extra conscientious about her dental care so as to avoid cavities, and so she has brought with her to Outdoor Ed a dental hygiene kit that includes a mouth mirror, pic, scraper, etc. She also has dental floss, toothpaste, and mouthwash. You may wonder why this is significant. You’ll see!

A message to readers from author Valerie Tripp:

I hope my readers will come away with this message: You are a scientist. You observe, test, evaluate, and draw conclusions constantly. STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math—is not restricted to labs or science fair booths, or classrooms. You’re doing STEM stuff everywhere, all the time, when you cook, run, feed you pet, quench your thirst, dive into a wave, wash your hands, learn to do a cartwheel, spend time on your laptop, look up at the stars, cut an apple into parts and divvy up the shares. Know this, embrace this, celebrate this—and take responsibility for both exploring AND protecting this extraordinary, exciting, surprising universe. Get out there! Be active, curious, and focused. Take yourself seriously. Your actions matter because they will shape the world we all live in.  Be mindful, pay attention, learn, and live fully with courage and zest.  And don’t be afraid to fail. Chaos, mess, and failure are essential parts of all creative endeavors like science. Don’t worry. Things heal. Mistakes are forgiven. You have plenty of time to tidy up.

About the Book

Buy | Goodreads

Meet the characters, watch the book trailer and check out the Educator and Reader’s Guides on the series website here!

The S.M.A.R.T. Squad is back to tackle more middle school mayhem with science, technology, engineering, math, and friendship!

In this third book in the S.M.A.R.T. Squad series, best friends Izzy Newton, Allie Einstein, Marie Curie, Charlie Darwin, and Gina Carver set out on a mystery-filled Outdoor Adventure Camp experience.

Now that Izzy’s finally found her voice in public speaking class and become an ice hockey star, she’s determined to conquer her “dizzy-Izzy-ness” in new situations―including caring for her brand-new braces on an outdoor education overnight and her friends’ good-natured teasing about her friend Trevor. But the forecast for fun turns cloudy when the girls discover their cabin chaperone is none other than Izzy’s tough public-speaking teacher, Ms. Martinez, and their junior counselor is eighth-grade mean girl, Maddie Sharpe.

When an innocent exchange of harmless pranks with Maddie takes a turn for the worse, the Squad turns to science to prove their innocence. That’s nothing, though, compared with the terrifying swamp monster haunting their campsite, a catastrophe befalling Ms. Martinez, and a mysterious disaster threatening the future of camp itself.

With their very survival on the line, will science be enough to save the day?

Praise:

“Wholesome entertainment for preteens, offering positivity without didacticism.”
― Kirkus

“It’s one thing to have children’s books about scientists or podcasts or stories about strong women in STEM, but it’s another world entirely when your children get to feel represented by the characters they’re reading about. The characters in the Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad series are diverse, smart, and sure of themselves the way all middle school girls are—through their dreams and newly acquired skills they’re still getting used to.”
― Romper

About the Author

VALERIE TRIPP is the co-creator of the American Girl book series that includes titles featuring Felicity, Josefina, Kit, Maryellen, Molly, and Samantha. Tripp also wrote American Girl’s Wellie Wishers titles, Hopscotch Hill School titles, numerous leveled readers, songs, stories, skills book pages, and plays for educational publishers. Tripp is the writer and editorial director of the Boys Camp series, and a writer, editor, and art editor for Sterling Publishing Company. Tripp received a B.A. and honors as a member of the first co-educated class at Yale University and a master’s of education degree from Harvard University.

GIVEAWAY

• Five (5) winners will receive the complete 3-book Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad series: Absolute Hero, Newton’s Flaw, and The Law of Cavities
• US/Canada only
• Ends 11/13 at 11:59 pm ET
• Enter via the Rafflecopter below
• Visit the other stops on the tour for more chances to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour Schedule:

October 31st — BookHounds
November 1st — Teen Librarian Toolbox
November 2nd — Pragmatic Mom
November 3rd — A Dream Within a Dream
November 4th — From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade AuthorsIzzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T Squad: The Law of Cavities tour post

p.s. Related posts:

Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad Blog Tour

Hiking and Camping Books for Kids

Maker Space STEAM: 3D Printing Camp

Sleepaway Camp and Why Dangerous Activities are Good for Kids

Watch, Learn, DO: DIY STEM Summer Camp

International Camper Exchange Program (ICEP) AUSTRALIA!

Funny Picture Books About Summer Camp

Girl Power: BlogHer vs Sleep Away Camp

Ideas for Setting Up Camp Mom

Week 1 of Camp Mom or Why I Can’t Keep a Routine

Care Packages To Impress Your Kids at Sleep Away Camp

Who Me? Sleepless Over Sleep Away Camp?

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My books:

BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.

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