The Star Wars novel Queen's Peril follows Queen Padmé Amidala and her handmaidens before and during the events of The Phantom Menace. In addition to exploring Padmé's world, however, author E.K. Johnston also reveals new details about another important character: Anakin Skywalker.
When Anakin and his mother Shmi appear in Queen's Peril, readers learn more about how he acquired his phenomenal technical skills. Anakin created the protocol droid C-3PO, to help his mother, and also built his own podracer from scratch. He's clearly gifted with technology.
A brief scene in Queen's Peril that takes place offscreen during The Phantom Menace attributes this gift to his mother. Jedi Qui-Gon Jin, Jar Jar Binks and Padmé are staying with the Skywalkers on Tatooine while they get the parts to repair their ship.
One night, Padmé can't sleep. She wanders the tiny house and finds Shmi awake as well. Shmi is tinkering with a screen, repairing it using various scavenged parts. It's the screen she'll use the following day to watch the podrace that will free Anakin.
The way Johnston describes Shmi's ability makes it clear that her skill is more intuitive than what can be simply learned from her and Anakin's enslaver Watto:
"Padmé watched as Shmi's clever fingers reassembled the screen, each piece falling into place so easily that Shmi might have been doing magic. It was soothing in the way that watching an artist was, and Padmé realized that this was merely art of a different kind."
Casting Shmi's technological prowess as art makes it sound more like a natural ability than a learned skill. That natural ability was passed down to Anakin.
Anakin received this natural talent from his mother and learned even more from watching her work. That's what made him able to build C-3PO when he was just 9 years old. Perhaps they even worked on projects together. Imagine little Ani tinkering side-by-side with his quiet, tender mother. It would be a beautiful moment in a story that was largely tragic.
Johnston drops many of these little insights into characters and events throughout Queen's Peril. One last thing to consider is if that 'magic' Padmé describes is the Force. It's possible -- though it's never explicitly stated -- that Shmi was Force-sensitive, as well.