Built for Speed: A Branches Book (Layla and the Bots #2): Volume 2

I like these books with a Black female STEM hero. This one has her collaborating with a wheelchair-using friend to build an accessible car. Cute story and great female role models.

I’m pretty disappointed by this book. The premise is really good, but the execution on the engineering design really falls short. Engineers know research and design are so important, and the first Layla and the Bots Book really highlighted that, but they totally skip over it in this book and just declare they need a powered chair so Tina can get in the car.And from there they add bandaid after bandaid on their design to make it work. The powered chair is too heavy, so they explore options for “patching” the car to make it more powerful and they end up adding a JET ENGINE to it, which requires further modifications to make it safe. Then they have to lobby the local government to even allow modifications to the standard cars.The author misses an awesome opportunity to point out how important it is to research and design your solution. Instead of adding a sensor for their jet engine they should have stepped back and looked at the problem they were actually trying to solve. They were trying to get Tina into the car easier since she’s in a wheelchair. So why not build a ramp and wheelchair clamps into the car so Tina can roll in? Or a solution that is outside of the car so it doesn’t add extra weight, or whatever.I will still read this book with my kids, but we will discuss where Layla went wrong, clearly define the problem they were trying to solve, and brainstorm other solutions.

It was nice to find a longer but still readable book for my boy who is in fifth grade but at a beginning of second grade (Fountas and Pinnell Level H). He enjoyed the story and actively read it every night. We gave bought more of the series now.

So thrilled to join Layla & her bots on their second mission: re-imagining a go-kart for their friend Tina. Once again the team is presented with a design problem that requires brainstorming, research, testing and tweaking.  A sensor on a mini-mart door provides the final inspiration for a successful go-kart with hand controls for speed. As with Layla's first adventure, there is a DIY tutorial at the end of this book for a simple at-home speedboat project. The story inspired us to fulfill our own "Need for Speed"!

My daughter loves the Layla and the bots books, this is the last one she needed to finish her collection