Melia and Jo

Aronson and Oxley (creators of the PBS Kids series Peg + Cat) celebrate the power of STEAM in this unsubtle story about teamwork and the value of diverse perspectives. Melia (after Amelia Earhart) is a budding inventor wearing a cape and a pilot helmet. Jo, clad in flapper attire (a visual shout-out to Josephine Baker), is the artsy performer next door who wreaks havoc on Melia’s most beloved inventions, sticking licorice in Melia’s robot and sailing her paper plane into the mud. But Melia’s initial annoyance turns to awe when she realizes that Jo’s “silly ideas” fix her malfunctioning creations’ flaws. After Jo literally finds herself up a tree, the two predictably decide they work better as a team. (“By combining Jo’s art skills with Melia’s science skills, they could create more super-cool stuff together than either could create alone.”) Backmatter includes instructions for making a plane like Melia’s and a prompt asking readers to reflect on their own artistic and scientific skills. Heavy-handed STEAM messaging aside, Melia and Jo are likable protagonists, and Aronson and Oxley’s roots in animation are on full display in the action-filled illustrations. Ages 4–7. [em](Aug.) [/em]