Schemework,Teamwork! The Boxitects by Kim Smith

MEG WAS A BOXITECT.

SHE LOVED TO MAKE THINGS OUT OF BOXES. SHE MADE TINY HOUSES, TALL TOWERS, AND TWISTY TUNNELS.

Meg made a castle that dominated the family room. Meg's mom admired her cleverness and creativity, so she signed her up for Maker School, where she could develop her construction skills somewhere else for a while.

AT MAKER SCHOOL THERE WERE BLANKETEERS, SPAGHETTI-TECHS, AND EGG CARTONERS.

But Meg was the only Boxitect in the bunch! She liked that!

She studied at making sturdier structures and more stylish structures. She was in her glory....

Until another student arrived--Simone--who was also into boxitect-ing. And worse of all, Simone believed she was the best boxitect ever. She fancied herself a critic and started giving Meg handy hints to make her consturctions stronger, straighter, and...

LESS BORING...!

Meg retaliated with little technical tips of her own to "help" Simone maker her products prettier.

Forget creativity. This was COMPETITION!

And to make it worse, it was time for the ANNUAL MAKER MATCH! Both Meg and Simon were determined to be on top... but there was one requirement they didn't expect--they had to work together. They agreed to split their construction into two parts: Meg built a tall treehouse and Simone added a towering smokestack to her ship. Their structure got more tottery and preposterous as each tried to make their design the biggest and tallest. And in due course, of course, there was a huge...

CRASH!

Quickly the two realized that they would be the laughingstock of the Makers' Match unless they became a TEAM!

And in the need to work together, the two learned to make something new, to make friends, in Kim Smith's little parable of partnership, Boxitects (Clarion Books, 2020). Youngsters will love author-illustrator Smith's inventive illustrations of the two rivals' contraptions, and love her story of friendship found in mutual interests as well. Writes Kirkus, "Personality and a developmental message successfully combine for STEAM fun."