Title: The Curie Society
Genre: YA Graphic Novel
Targeted Age: Middle School - Early High School
Plot Summary: Three new female freshman university students, with varied personalities, talents and skills, discover themselves roommates. The soon receive an invitation and a challenge, will they choose and learn to work as a team? The secret Curie Society supports and benefits from the strength women scientists, the students much choose which connections and goals they deem are most important to them.
Justification for book choice: A graphic novel focused on strong YA STEM students. Although the main characters in the book are university students or older, the writing style is focused on young adults. The focus is on the strength and possibilities of women in science and technology professions and studies.
Evaluation: The Curie Society introduces readers to three successful, talented, smart but very different college freshman students. The character development of the women is done a piece at a time, and each character wins the reader over as more information is provided. The colorful illustrations add depth to the dialogue and keep the story moving forward while also adding nuanced emotions and reactions. The plot addresses challenges of teamwork, discernment, and trust. The near absence of male characters portrayed in a positive light just emphasizes the theme that women can be successful in whatever they choose.
Citation: Einhorn, H., Staffaroni, A. (2021). The Curie Society (S. Liao, Illus.). MIT Press.