The Maple Street Science Fair

What this book practices

An original story about a fourth grader whose experiment, bean plants grown in three kinds of light, contradicts her hypothesis the night before the fair. The fair-test method and the numbers are real and can be repeated at home. Practices reading data, cause and effect, and honesty.

Level

Chapter book: Five short chapters, about 140 words on a page

Themes

Science, Honesty, School, Family

After the story

A short activity checks understanding, then a prompt to tell a grown-up about the book.

Levels are PlayOwl's own design guidelines for each grade, not a certified reading level. In I'll Read, PlayOwl records that a child turned every page; it cannot hear whether the words were read.

Credit and rights

Written and illustrated by PlayOwl.

Cover

Drawn in code for PlayOwl in 2026 with the Read with Olly illustration kit. An original design. Original work owned by PlayOwl.

Illustrations

Drawn in code for PlayOwl in 2026 with the Read with Olly illustration kit, from the picture briefs in this file (an invented school and family, bean plants in paper cups, and a bar chart of the numbers in the story). Original designs. Original work owned by PlayOwl.

Narration

Spoken by the reader's own device voice. PlayOwl ships no recording. No recorded work exists.

Text

Written for PlayOwl in 2026. An original story; the characters, the places and every sentence are new. Original work owned by PlayOwl.