Transatlantic is excited to share that Heather Alexander’s middle-grade novel, Eat Bugs! #1: Project Startup, has been recognized on the National Science Teaching Association’s Best STEM Books K-12 List for books published in 2021!
Eat Bugs! #1: Project Startup is inspired by the incredible true story of two friends who landed a deal on Shark Tank and follows sixth-grade students-turned-entrepreneurs who are on a mission to save the world, one bug at a time, in this fun and empowering illustrated novel filled with facts!
Hallie and Jaye are two very different sixth graders who both attend Brookdale Middle School. When they get paired as partners for their business class pitch competition, it’s not exactly a perfect match. Jaye doesn’t want to be seen with the kid who was called “Bug Girl” after eating a fried cricket during a trip to the zoo! But they’re stuck with each other, and together try to come up with creative ways to sell bugs as food. As the competition heats up, can Hallie and Jaye make the judges say “Bug appétit!” or will they only hear crickets?
Heather Alexander is the author of numerous books for children, both fiction and nonfiction. Her fiction series include Wallace and Grace Take the Case and The Amazing Stardust Friends, and her nonfiction series include Life of Earth and A Child’s Introduction to . . . The former editorial director of Parachute Press, Heather has edited over 100 children’s fiction series, including the best-selling Goosebumps. She currently works as a children’s book editor and lives in Los Angeles.
Laura D’Asaro and Rose Wang are the co-founders of Chirps, one of the first companies to make food with cricket protein. Both are Shark Tank winners, Forbes 30 under 30 social entrepreneurs, ELLE USA Impact Award winners, Echoing Green fellows, MassChallenge Gold Winners, and Harvard Dean’s Design Challenge winners. In addition, Rose is a TEDx speaker, and Laura holds multiple world records, including the record for the world’s largest nachos (yes, it was made with cricket chips). They also sit on the board of an education nonprofit, Wema Inc., in Kenya. Laura and Rose were college roommates at Harvard, and now both live in San Francisco, California.
Heather, Laura, and Rose are represented by Elizabeth Bennett.
To see the full list of winning titles, please visit https://www.nsta.org/beststem22.