We love to visit schools and present to students! But what do you do when you can't meet in person? Hold a virtual assembly and author visit! Our virtual assembly is highly interactive and engaging! This unique online experience includes: a reading of our book, virtual science experiments, a book talk describing the making of the book, a teacher-moderated Q&A, and a virtual book signing. We provide teachers with activities for students to do ahead of the assembly to research the topic of light and color vision, journal their learning, as well as to generate questions they'd like to ask the author on the call. Contact us today to set up a virtual assembly for your students!

Were you already part of a virtual school assembly? Order your autographed copy of the book—for local delivery only—here!

Overview of The Book

Hands On Activities

Get our FREE activities to use with your own set of colored flashlights and your favorite stuffed animal assistant! These feature two activities that go along with the book, including a Venn Diagram Model for tri-colored sight that works with colored LED flashlights and a mathematical way of representing the color mixing of light.

Download the activities here!

For Parents

Read alongside your kids.

Few children’s stories go where Science With Scarlett dares to venture. Since children love stories and picture book characters, but often children’s science books are dry fact-sharing nonfiction, it follows that merging science and fiction in a teachable manner would be a great way to engage kids with scientific concepts and parents and kids reading together.

Inspire curiosity and scientific thinking.

Children crave to know how the world around them works. And while they may not be able to handle all the technical vocabulary and concepts of science at a young age, they’re no less curious about what’s going on around them with things they can observe. But often, science texts for kids don’t tell stories, they merely give facts and show pictures. Science With Scarlett is different. It blends the visual draw and narrative appeal of a fiction story with an inquiry-based approach to teaching science through exploring discrepant events and developing conceptual models. This elegant story can get young thinkers wondering and young wonderers thinking.

Take part in social responsibility.

After having his sight restored by cornea transplant surgery, Gary Abud, Jr. became a successful science teacher and was able to start a family. He never forgot the impact that regaining his vision had on his life, and eventually that motivated him to want to give back. Inspired by the curiosity of his preschool daughter, Laina, for the world around her, Gary decided to take some of his favorite science experiments and turn them into children’s stories to teach kids about science and engage them with reading at the same time. His intent was to direct proceeds from the book to support Eversight, the non-profit organization that helps make sight-restoring cornea transplants possible, and ultimately turn his passion for teaching, parenting, and science into a project that could help others.

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For Educators

Using fiction to teach actual science.

Rich science blends seamlessly with rhyming verse and bright imagery to tell the story of Scarlett, the young scientist, who teaches the reader the science of color vision. Though the story is fiction, with Scarlett the science is not. Join her to learn how shadows are formed and the colors of light mix to make all the shades of the rainbow appear before our eyes.

The book models how the eye sees color.

Using only receptors for red, green, and blue, the eye can perceive other colors. Scarlett models this for the reader using tri-colored flashlights to conduct her light-mixing experiments.

Readers generate & test hypotheses

This book conducts a series of demonstrations, experiments and discrepant events that ask the reader to predict what will happen on each page. With their own set of colored bulbs, readers could conduct the experiment right alongside Scarlett!

About the Creators

Gary Abud Jr.

Liz Craft

About the Author

Gary Abud Jr. is an award-winning educator and double cornea transplant recipient who, since having his sight restored, was moved to use his teaching gifts to make science fun for kids. He lives with his family near Detroit and writes to inspire children, like his preschool daughter, to love science. Gary is the 2014 recipient of the Michigan Teacher of the Year honor. Read Gary's interview with book blogger Elena Reads to learn more about his story.

About the Illustrator

Liz Craft is an artist who studied at College for Creative Studies with a focus in illustration and art education. She lives with her husband in Detroit, Michigan, and strives to grow as an artist every day. Liz enjoys teaching art, loves doughnuts, and swimming in Lake Michigan.

What Color Will It Be?

Now Available!