What Will I Discover?

The first half of What Will I Discover? tells young readers about things that scientists already know, from how otters keep from floating away when they sleep, to how long a storm has raged on Jupiter, to how fast our brains can send messages.

They know about the world inside us, too.
In our brains, billions of cells signal one another.
Their messages zoom from one cell to the next,
faster than race cars around a track.

But half way through What Will I Discover?, our young narrator acknowledges: “But other times, I have questions. And no one — no one! — has the answers.”

The second half of the book explores some questions that haven’t yet been answered, questions about underwater, outer space, trees’ languages, and where dreams come from.

The conclusion of the book empowers readers to ask their own questions and seek their own answers.

Then there’s my biggest question of all.
The one I wonder about each night, just as I’m falling asleep.
And no one can answer it but me …
What will I discover?

The charming illustrations by Rachel Qiuqi in What Will I Discover? show the young narrator floating in outer space, peeking from behind a tree in the rainforest, using a magnifying glass to examine flora and fauna, and making notes during a conversation with a dinosaur. For an added way of engaging young readers, the end page of the book encourages readers to flip back through the book to find 10 items from the illustrations.

Can you find them all? If you like investigating, inventing, or creating, you might become a scientist one day. Maybe you’ll design a new kind of robot. Build deep-sea submarines. Or calculate the size of the universe.

What Will You Discover? ends with an explanation of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math), and the following strong words of empowerment.

Experts in these areas explore the universe and answer questions about it. Humans still have a lot to learn.

And we need all sorts of people — LIKE YOU! —to help us.

What Will I Discover? may be the key that unlocks a young student’s interest in making a minor or even major contribution to some STEAM field.