Kate MacDonald, PhD

When Izzy Steam, an eleven-year-old aspiring biologist with a case of anxious perfectionism, arrives at the Science Valley Boarding School, she feels right at home. Alongside her PhD-level mother and her ambitious new friends, Danica and Micah, it’s as if the school were made for kids like her. But is she really good enough to be there?

One night, Izzy happens upon a curious bone from Micah’s collection of treasures found in the woods around campus, which sends her into a molecular mystery. Maybe this could be Izzy’s claim to fame as a young scientist! With the guidance of one of her teachers, Dr. Pabo, who helps her test the remains, Izzy learns the bone contains not-quite-human DNA. It’s certainly not that of an animal, either. One thing’s for sure—the bone is very old. So old, in fact, it could be a link to humanity’s ancestral past…

Then again, through the rigors of the scientific method, Izzy might make an even greater discovery—being wrong is okay, and the best results aren’t always perfect. Alternating between narration and excerpts from Izzy’s lab notebook, Molecules and Mystery Bones is a tale of a worried girl’s deep exploration into the tools of careful study and young life.