Sydney & Simon: Full Steam Ahead! by Paul A. Reynolds (review)

As the STEM movement trends through educational circles, the STEAM movement follows hot on its heals, inserting “Art” as a vital partner to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In this chapter book, twin mice Sydney and Simon attack a problem with a multi-disciplinary arsenal: the flowers in an upper floor window box need watering, but the window is stuck shut. Acting with logical and intellectual discipline that is perhaps more the domain of fictional mice than actual kids, the sibs investigate how humidity impacts wooden windows, how the public water supply system works, and how both Archimedes and Leonardo (aha! science and art!) worked on the idea of a screw pump—just the ticket for two youngsters to water their drooping flowers. The weather breaks, the window opens, the Art in Bloom show goes on, and Sydney and Simon use high and low tech presentations styles to demonstrate what they’ve learned about plants. The plot, transparently a walk-through for applying STEAM thinking to a curricular situation, is not compelling enough to claim storytelling merit, and youngsters will certainly sense that adult concerns, rather than the joys of tinkering, drive this effort. The appended letter from the Reynoldses, “Are You a STEAM Thinker?” is ostensibly directed to readers, but with its discussion of integrating arts and technology, it is clearly aimed at teachers and parents. The debate between STEMers and STEAMers certainly deserves thoughtful attention, but this set piece, with more pedantry than plot, will probably be of more interest to educators than to their young students.