The Nora Notebooks: The Trouble with Ants

Gr 3–6—Nora Alpers is not your typical fourth grader. While her classmates enjoy talking about cute, cuddly cats, she is obsessed with facts, especially interesting facts about ants. Nora keeps a notebook in which she writes down all sorts of information about the everyday happenings of ants. Her parents are both scientists and this inspires Nora to study ants in an ant farm in order to write an article about them. She hopes to submit it to a major scientific journal. Unfortunately, none of girls in Nora's class are interested in her aspirations, though her basketball coach, Coach Joe, is a source of encouragement, as well as her friends Mason and Brody. Will Nora find success as a published writer and break the world record for youngest published author of a professional journal? Readers will be drawn into the story by the sincere and realistic characters Mills has created, as well as the pleasing and appealing illustrations found in every chapter. Patrons will be anxiously waiting to find out what the subject of Nora's next notebook will be.