Now that budding scientist Curious McCarthy's dad is going back to work, the five oldest McCarthy kids will be helping more with chores and taking turns cooking dinner. When her parents present the daily chore chart, Curious is delighted that they forgot to assign her a task. She spends the next week trying to go unnoticed and chore-less as she learns about chemistry and observes it at work right in her own chaotic home. Her funny footnotes capture all the details of her observations for readers, who can then try their hand at science with an included experiment. The addition of a glossary and questions for the reader make this a great choice for libraries.