Ellie Ment and the Material Matter

Bertie Stephens’ Ellie Ment and the Material Matter is a delightful blend of adventure, science, and environmental awareness, wrapped in a story that is equal parts playful and thought-provoking. As someone who appreciates books that manage to both entertain and teach, I found myself quickly immersed in Ellie’s world, a small English town, a curious young scientist with endless jam jars, and a mystery that crackles with purple flames.

At its heart, this is a book about curiosity and the courage to ask questions. Ellie, an eleven-year-old who proudly declares herself a scientist, refuses to accept explanations that don’t add up. Early in the story, she muses, “Magic isn’t science. But science is magic. And more importantly, Ellie can do science”. That line struck me as the book’s true thesis, an invitation to young readers (and the adults reading alongside them) to see wonder not in the fantastical, but in the tangible mysteries of the natural world.

The novel weaves together several important themes. Foremost is the joy of scientific discovery. Ellie’s experiments—meticulously burying jam jars to collect rainwater in different seasons, or testing her theories on carbon and combustion—show children that science isn’t confined to a laboratory. It’s everywhere, accessible with nothing more than a notebook, patience, and a willingness to get wet in the rain.

Environmental awareness is another strong undercurrent. The story brims with playful but pointed commentary about waste, pollution, and our relationship with the planet. Lucas, the local litterbug who builds a castle out of rubbish only for it to collapse on him, offers both comedy and critique. More poignantly, Ellie’s experiments with rainfall and the presence of plastics around Hapsie reveal how human actions seep into even the smallest details of nature.

Ellie herself is wonderfully imperfect. She’s brilliant with numbers but hopeless at drawing, endlessly curious yet sometimes impatient, brave but still very much a child. Her friend Michael, nicknamed “Upcycle Michael,” provides a balance—less precise, more inventive, and constantly tinkering with discarded objects. Their friendship highlights the theme that intelligence takes many forms, whether it’s through equations or creative problem-solving.Ellie Ment and the Material Matter succeeds in something rare: it makes science feel exciting without being intimidating, and it threads environmental themes into a story without preaching. Children will enjoy the quirky adventures, the jam-jar experiments, and the mysteries Ellie stumbles into, while adults will appreciate the book’s gentle encouragement to nurture curiosity and responsibility in the next generation.

For me, the joy of this book lies in its balance: it is both fun and meaningful, both silly and serious. Ellie’s world is full of purple flames, fizzing experiments, and unanswered questions, but above all, it is filled with hope, the hope that one curious child with a backpack of jam jars really can make a difference.