Adam’s Atomic Adventures

Alice Baxter has crafted a book that both entertains and educates.

Children will be enthralled by the dangerous adventure that takes Adam into the periodic table of the elements, as they learn all about atoms and the chemical elements.

Plot synopsis: Adam is having a miserable day. First, he causes his team to lose the soccer game, and then he gets teased for being the shortest boy in the fifth grade. Just when Adam thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong, Mrs.Gold, his rather peculiar science teacher, makes him stay behind after class. Adam’s day goes from bad to just plain weird when Mrs.

Gold shares with him a startling secret: she’s much more than a science teacher—Mrs. Gold is a powerful alchemist who’s counting on Adam’s help to save the world! Mrs. Gold has chosen Adam for a critical task. She plans to shrink Adam down to the microscopic size of a single atom and send him to the Periodic School for the Elements to search for Ollie, a missing atom of oxygen. Without Ollie, the planet’s supply of oxygen will vanish.

As Mrs. Gold produces the philosopher’s stone, the secret magical tool of alchemists, Adam is suddenly thrust into the bizarre and treacherous realm of chemical elements. He must take advantage of his scientific knowledge to find Ollie before it’s too late.

Here is an example of one of the lessons that Adam overhears in the room containing atoms of Gold.

We are the perfect element
So lovely to behold.
The ancients named us Aurum.
But you can call us Gold.
In olden days gold filled the vaults
Of emperors and kings.
Today we’re found as jewelry,
From necklaces to rings.
Our lustrous shine will never fade,
No matter what you do.
Drop us in an acid bath,
We come out good as new.
We’re very heavy, very dense.
And crazy as it sounds
A basketball, if solid gold,
Would weigh 300 pounds

The author of Adam’s Atomic Adventures, Alice Baxter, has taught high school science for over thirty years. She currently teaches chemistry and advanced chemistry at
the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor Connecticut.

She received a BS from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a PhD in the history of science from Yale University.

Dr. Baxter believes that young children can understand basic chemistry, if the concepts are presented simply and in the context of a story. This book introduces children to the elements and the periodic table, topics that form the foundation of high school chemistry. Children who read the book will have a head start in high school science, and it may also start them on a life long interest in science.

An imaginative, entertaining and educational romp … Kirkus Discoveries

www.adamsatomicadventures.com