Review - Boxitects

Boxitects
by Kim Smith
Date: 2019
Publisher: Clarion Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 40
Format: e-book
Source: library

A STEAM-centered, adorably illustrated picture book about Meg, a brilliant and creative boxitect who creates extraordinary things out of ordinary cardboard boxes.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is an okay story about competition between two rivals. It also encourages kids to try their hand at building things with cardboard boxes.

Meg is a boxitect, meaning that she likes to build things with cardboard boxes. Her mother, seeing her talent, sends her to Maker School. Meg is the only boxitect there among the blanketeers, spaghetti-tects, tin-foilers, and egg-cartoneers... for a while. Then Simone shows up, and the battle of the boxitects begins. On the day of the Maker Match, when they're supposed to be working together, they're actually competing with one another. Eventually, their creation, weighed down by ridiculous amounts of cardboard, collapses. The girls have to think fast and work together to salvage their project.

The story is okay, although I don't know if it's a good idea to be teaching kids there's such a thing as "Maker School"; it sounds totally fun, and some readers are bound to be disappointed to find out it's not real. There are some instructions at the back for building a couple of cardboard projects, as well as a simple experiment that shows kids how corrugated cardboard gets its strength (unfortunately, the pictures show Meg holding the paper the wrong way, so it's not going to work; she needs to turn it 90 degrees).

This book might find an audience among kids who already like to make things. I probably would've liked it when I was little... although I would've been disappointed to find out I wouldn't be going to Maker School.

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.17 out of 5