STEM at home
Rate-A-Tat Cat
by Gamewright
Ages: 6+ years
A card game of memory, strategy, and a little nerve. Players are dealt four face-down cards and try to end the round with the lowest score — collecting low-value cat cards and ditching high-value rat cards. Peek, Swap, and Draw Two power cards let players maneuver and outwit opponents, but only if they can remember where their own cards are. Fast-playing, easy to learn, and genuinely strategic. For 2–6 players.
Awards: Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award | Mensa Select | Games Magazine Top 100 | NAPPA Honors | Major Fun Award
Why we like it: Rat-a-Tat Cat is quietly doing a lot of mathematical work — addition, memory, probability, and risk-reward thinking — wrapped in a game kids just want to play again. The rounds are short enough to fit anywhere, and the strategy runs deep enough to keep adults honest. One of those rare games that works just as well at the kitchen table as it does on a plane.
Kanoodle
by Educational Insights
Ages: 7+ years
Twelve colorful pieces, a pocket-sized case, and 228 puzzles ranging from beginner to expert. The challenge is straightforward: use the guide to set up some pieces on the board, then fit the remaining ones to solve it. In 2D or 3D. There is always exactly one solution — which makes the moment it clicks genuinely satisfying. Solo play, screen-free, and compact enough to go anywhere.
Why we like it: Kanoodle is a masterclass in spatial reasoning disguised as something you just want to fiddle with. The puzzle format is self-contained and self-correcting — kids know immediately when they've solved it and when they haven't — which makes it unusually good for independent, persistent thinking. The range from beginner to expert means it grows with the child, and the portable case means it's always within reach.
Bones Never Lie: How Forensics Helps Solve History's Mysteries
by Elizabeth MacLeod
Ages: 9-11 years
Seven cold cases from history — King Tut, Napoleon, Anastasia, and four others — examined through modern forensic science. DNA analysis, bone fragments, autopsies, ballistics, odontology: each chapter reads like a whodunit, then reveals how science settled what history couldn't. The crime-lab design keeps the pages moving, and the science is rigorous. A book that makes forensics, biology, and history feel like the same subject.
Awards: Arthur Ellis Award, Crime Writers of Canada — Juvenile/YA | Silver Medal, Independent Publisher Book Awards | EUREKA! Nonfiction Children's Book Award | Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Books, Starred Selection
Why we like it: Bones Never Lie makes kids want to become scientists without ever announcing that's what it's doing. The forensic science is real — DNA testing, deductive reasoning, entomology — and the historical context gives it genuine stakes. A natural bridge between science and history for curious, independent readers.