Billed as a bizarre adventure filled with brain-tickling facts about particles and science wonders, Your Adventures at CERN invites young audiences to experience a visit to CERN in different guises.
The reader can choose one of three characters, each with a different story: a tourist, a student and a researcher. The stories are intertwined, and the choice of the reader’s actions through the book changes their journey, rather than following a linear chronology. The stories are filled with puzzles, mazes, quizzes and many other games that challenge the reader. Engaging physics references and explanations, as well as the solutions to the quizzes, are given at the back of the book.
Author Letizia Diamante, a biochemist turned science communicator who previously worked in the CERN press office, portrays the CERN experience in an engaging and understandable way. The adventures are illustrated with funny jokes and charismatic characters, such as “Schrödy”, a hungry cat that guides the reader through the adventures in exchange for food. Detailed hand-drawn illustrations by Claudia Flandoli are included, together with photographs of CERN facilities that take the reader directly into the heart of the lab. Moreover, the book includes several historical facts about particle physics and other topics, such as the city of Geneva and the extinct dinosaurs from the Jurassic era, which is named after the nearby Jura mountains on the border between France and Switzerland. A particle-physics glossary and extra information, such as fun cooking recipes, are also included at the end.
Although targeted mainly at children, this book is also suitable for teenagers and adults looking for a soft introduction to high-energy physics and CERN, offering a refreshing addition to the more mainstream popular particle-physics literature.
