May 2017

A Note from the First Lady:

Dear Read20 Book Club families,

Rosie Revere, Engineer is a wonderful story about a shy young girl who dreams of becoming a great engineer. When she gets home from school each day, she spends her free time solving problems for her aunts and uncles by designing brilliant gizmos and gadgets. This creative tale about Rosie and her latest invention will inspire you to think outside of the box, and will encourage you to remain heartened when your future looks bleak.

By experimenting with a flying helicopter contraption, Rosie and her Aunt Rose teach us an important lesson about what happens when we make a mistake.  I hope you will keep experimenting, failing, and learning as all good engineers do! As Rosie says, “Life might have its failures, but this was not it! The only true failure can come if you quit!”

Keep up the great reading!

Crissy Haslam
First Lady of Tennessee

Fun Family Activities for the Book of the Month

Character Development
Rosie Revere is an engineer. Have you ever met an engineer? We learn in the story that engineers can make creative inventions, gadgets, and gizmos, like Rosie’s hot dog dispenser! There are all types of engineers that make things you see and use every day. Engineers even work for NASA to make rockets and work up in space! Follow this link to watch a video from NASA to learn more about what engineers do. Can you name three things that you can see right now that an engineer probably made?

Context Research
Rosie’s great-great aunt Rose comes to visit her in this story, and brings some helpful inspiration and lessons to Rosie Revere. Aunt Rose is actually another famous fictional character known as Rosie the Riveter, who made a splash in the 1940’s for her work in encouraging women to join the workforce and get involved during the WWII era. Follow this link and head to your local library to find out more about Rosie the Riveter! How do you think great-great Aunt Rose (Rosie the Riveter) might have inspired Rosie Revere? How did she encourage Rosie?

Engaging with the Text
When Rosie’s heli-o-cheese-copter crashes, Rosie is upset! She thinks her failed attempt at creating this flying machine means that she might never be an engineer. But great-great Aunt Rose just hugged Rosie and said that the flop was a raging success! How can Rosie’s failure actually be a success? Why is it important to keep trying when you fail? What does Aunt Rose teach Rosie about making mistakes? Have you ever tried something that was not a success on the first go? How can you use Aunt Rose’s advice when you try new things?

Become an Engineer
Rosie’s inventions from this story include a hot dog dispenser, a snake-repelling hat, and a heli-o-cheese-copter. If you wanted to build something like that, how would you go about it?  Let’s walk through the engineering design process. First, you might need to identify a problem and research and brainstorm how you might solve it. Then you can begin building your gadget, and after completion, you’ll need to test it to see if it works! After testing, if your invention doesn’t work, you might need to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to improve your work. What problem do you think Rosie was trying to solve when she built her helicopter? What needed to happen to make the helicopter fly? When the design didn’t solve the problem like she hoped, how did she make changes to improve the copter? Think of a problem you might want to solve – and walk through these steps to see if you can engineer a contraption to solve it!

Further Reading
Rosie Revere, Engineer is one book in a series by author Andrea Beaty. To explore other career paths and go on adventures with some new characters, check out Ada Twist, Scientist or Iggy Peck, Architect from your local library.