In her first week in fourth grade (exiled to a new school because of redistricting) Curious decides that she wants to be a scientist, and her first task is to sharpen her powers of observation by observing her large family, three older sisters and three younger brothers--and try and become effectively invisible in her new class.
When the lights go out in her house fourth-grader and middle child Curious starts to consider the whole phenomenon of electricity and how it is created--but one of her younger brothers, John Glenn McCarthy, sees her scientific research as an opportunity for practical jokes.
Curious, a middle child among seven siblings, approaches life with a scientific mindset, treating her family's dynamics as experiments. During a week when the children take turns cooking, she formulates hypotheses about family relationships, including the notion that happy families lack younger brothers or older sisters. This exploration of family chemistry reveals her unique perspective and the humorous challenges of sibling interactions.