I love Curious McCarthy, the book and the person! I adored Curious before I read a word of this book. From the first glance of her on the cover I knew she was going to be my kind of girl.

Curie (Curious) McCarthy was named after Marie Curie, a famous scientist. She is the middle child in a family with seven children! She has three older sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne) and three younger brothers (John Glenn, Benjamin and Edison). Her mother is a full time English professor and her father, a retired engineer, is now a stay at home Dad.

Curious just started fourth grade at a new school, not because her family moved, but because the school district decided to change the boundary lines. All of her friends still attend her previous school. Curious has been a scientist for 6 days, 19 hours and 13 minutes.

In this book we go to school with Curious, we visit the school library and the principal's office, attend Secret Sister Society (SSS) meetings and sit in on some entertaining dinners. Along the way Curious is learning how to be a scientist by making hypotheses, conducting experiments, and coming to conclusions, while also learning about chain reactions and germs.

Other than Curious' family we get to know her teacher (Mrs Stickler), her school librarian (Mr Grumpus), her school principal (Mr Cornforth), Aunt Dolly, a likely friend (Lin Tran), and an unlikely friend (Robin Finch).

The way this book was written it felt like Curious was sitting across from you telling you her story. I would have loved this book as a child and would have wanted to be Curious' friend. I love it just as much as a grown up.

All of the McCarthy kids had distinct and interesting personalities, and from about the middle of the book I could tell which one was speaking just by what they said. Theirs is a lovely family that I want to know more about.

I loved the illustrations and found it particularly helpful to be introduced to all of the characters in this book through the two pages of pictures and descriptions before the story started. In the beginning of the book when I didn't know who was who yet I could quickly flip back to these pages to remind myself which McCarthy we were hearing about.

I found the science in this book wonderful. It was explained in an age appropriate way and it all sounded like so much fun that I can imagine a whole pile of girls deciding they're going to be scientists when they grow up after reading this book. I learned some fun facts myself from reading but because it was so much fun it didn't feel like the drudgery that's usually associated with learning.

I loved the coloured footnotes. In the back of the book there were some fun extras, including a glossary that explained what the more difficult words in the book meant and how to say them, and a recipe for Oobleck!

I received an ARC from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback. Young girls are going to love this book and their parents are going to love reading this to their girls (or themselves). I enjoyed this book so much I'm going to be purchasing the other three books in the series.

What a treat to read a book about a large family of curious characters. The book's narrator Curious McCarthy, age 10, wants to be a scientist when she grows up. In this book, she focuses on the power of observation using her own family to develop various hypotheses (something she explains in a footnote). Young readers will enjoy the humor as Curious interacts with her teacher and family. They'll also understand her struggle as a middle child at home and the new girl at school.
This clever use of footnotes adds a unique dimension to the book. This may be the first time younger readers have encountered footnotes. It’s a great introduction because these footnotes, unlike those in scholarly texts, are fun to read! Curious is in the 4th grade. I suspect that 4th grade readers will flock to this books and others in the series.
The illustrations are charming. They introduce the characters, and with a family of seven children, this really helps readers identify who is who. I was also impressed with the back matter. I considered making some slime myself, but decided to make cookies instead. I think Curious, or at least her younger brothers, might approve.

Curious, the nick name of Curie McCarthy, wants to be a scientist, after her name sake, Marie Curie, and so she decides she is going to observer everything around her, including her six brothers and sisters and mother and father.

It is a cute enough book, well told in her voice, with lots of footnotes, because apparently that is something else that scientist like, is footnotes. The footnotes should be read, because they deliver good and valuable information, which ads to the story, or ads to your knowledge in general.

And the thing she is observing, her brother hiding the food he doesn't want to eat, is cute, especially when she inspects it later, to see how it has gotten hard and moldy.

It was a fun and quick read, and is probably closer to a 3.5, but I didn't feel like the ending was all that good. Perhaps that is because this is going to be a series of books, and we will find out more as we go along.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Well, this sounded much more pleasant than it actually was. There were a few things I liked, but also a ton of things I didn't like.

So first up the things I did like:
-Our MC's name. She is called Curie, but people nickname her to Curious (because she is, yes, curious). I also like the other names of the sisters and brothers.
-The fact that our MC has such a clear view of what she wants to become, and also tries her best to do scientific stuff. She seems a bit daunted by the fact she will have to read a lot, but she is still going for it.
-The illustrations. They were really fun, and quite pretty.
-The footnotes were nice, buttttt..... (see bad side).

The things I didn't like:
-How incomplete/inconclusive this book felt. There were several things that felt like it was supposed to be a bigger book. For instance the food problem with the kids (also was surprised at the fact the table had drawers, you don't see that a lot). The whole time it seems like it was going to be solved, someone would undertake action, but then nothing happens. At all.
Plus hello, doesn't anyone clean that house? Those drawers? I am sorry, but there must be a very bad smell emanating from the drawers by now, but no one notices? Or at least notices it enough to check it? Whut?
The whole reading / not wanting to read. Again, it feels like there was supposed to be more to it, but then it just never came.
-The way the adults reacted to Curious. I didn't get the big BOOHOO about her drawing with her marker on a book. Yes, it is bad, but it wasn't as if she did it on purpose. From what I could read she was just startled while holding a marker and accidentally drew over the page. But, no, immediately she gets kicked out of the class and dragged to the principal, as if she committed mass murder. Yes, damaging book is NO, but she did it on accident, really...
Then there is the whole thing with the library, and I hated that old guy who just didn't want to listen to what she had to say, he immediately assumed it was her, and that she should be more responsible. HELLOOOOO didn't you hear her? And does she really seem the kind of girl who would do that to books? *sighs* How do you turn kids away from reading completely, by doing this crap.
-The sisters. I was just annoyed with how they treated Curious.
-The footnotes. Yes, they were fun, but also really distracting, in the end I just skipped reading them and focused on the story.

So all in all, I just can't rate this book higher than 2.5 stars.