Biographies of Scientists and Mathematicians

B

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
A biography of a self-taught scientist who photographed thousands of individual snowflakes in order to study their unique formations.” – CIP

Barnum’s Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World by Tracey Fern (New York: Barrar Straus Giroux, 2012).

A fascinating account of the discoveries of a famous paleontologist. Sure to be enjoyed by anyone who wonders how scientists know what dinosaurs looked like. Recommended for readers 10-years-old and up. 

Biebow, Natascha. The Crayon Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.
Coloured oil pastel pencils were invented in 1834 by the Staedtler company. Coloured art pencils were invented in 1924 by Faber-Castell and Caran d’Ache. In between those two dates – in 1903 – coloured wax crayons were invented by Edwin Binney, a man who loved colour. Binney had already invented an inexpensive gray slate pencil and a white chalk pencil that wasn’t dusty. He’d invented a wax crayon, but it was black and he wanted colour. So he and a team experimented using ground up rocks and minerals. They tried adding clay and wax. They tried heating the mixtures and letting them slowly cool. Finally, they were ready with a box of eight: blue, brown, green, orange, red, violet, yellow, and – of course – black. Crayola crayons became famous!
Supplemented by a two-page illustrated step-by-step explanation of how crayons are still made in Pennsylvania, a one-page biography of additional information about Binney, and a bibliography for curious readers, this picture book is happily recommended for readers six to eleven years old. 

P.S. As a source of information for students doing research to expand their general knowledge, this book is great. As a read-aloud for young children, it will still be interesting but the small boxes of additional information in a smaller font on six of the pages disrupt the flow of the story. I wish that the author had found a way to either include the information in the main text or put it in an appendix. I also wish the designer of the book had chosen a more cheerful font for the story. But otherwise, this is a wonderful biography to encourage readers to be curious about the everyday objects all around them. 

C

Lower, Jan. The Brilliant Calculator: How Mathematician Edith Clarke Helped Electrify America. New York: Calkins Creek, an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers, 2023.
Edith Clarke was born in 1883 and grew up loving numbers, excelling at school math competitions. She was sent to boarding school to learn about manners and music but instead dreamed of building railroads and bridges. After attending college, she became a math and physics teacher and helped invent a slide rule to speed up math calculations. She studied engineering, designed electrical transmission lines, and invented a calculator to help other engineers provide electricity for people all across America. All this information is told as a smoothly flowing story, in short sentences comfortable for reading silently or aloud. Extensive additional information is included at the end: an author’s note; a timeline; a glossary; a descriptive list of eight more women mathematicians, engineers, and inventors; and a lengthy bibliography. A beautifully designed and illustrated biography highly recommended for readers 9 to 90 years old.

D

Charles Darwin by Kathleen Krull (Penguin Group, 2010).

One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin by Kathryn Lasky (Candlewick Press, 2009).
” Text and illustrations tell the story of the ever-curious boy who grew up to make one of the most significant discoveries of our time.” – CIP

 Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heligman (H. Holt, 2010, 2009).
Winner of multiple awards, this biography tells the story of Charles Darwin and his marriage to the woman who encouraged him to explore his ideas and develop his scientific theories.  Intelligent readers who prefer books about the real world will enjoy this elegantly written biography of the man who first published his revolutionary ideas on evolution in 1859.  [Darwin, Charles; Darwin, Emma Wedgewood; Evolution (Biology) — Biography; Naturalists]

What Darwin Saw: The Journey That Changed the World by Rosalyn Schanzer (National Geographic, 2009). 

 

 

What Mr. Darwin Saw by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom (London : Frances Lincoln Children’s, 2009).

 

 

The Tree of Life : A Book Depicting the Life of Charles Darwin, Naturalist, Geologist & Thinker  by Peter Sis (Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2003). 

 

Brown, Don. A Wizard from the Start : the Incredible Boyhood & Amazing Inventions of Thomas Edison. New York: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010.

E

 

On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne (Chronicle Books, 2013).

Albert Einstein by Kathleen Krull (Viking, 2009).

 I Am Albert Einstein by Brad Meltzer (New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014).
This small biography is part of the charming picture book series ‘Ordinary People Change the World’. Told from the first person point of view and illustrated in cartoon style by Christopher Eliopoulos, each volume focuses on a specific character trait. In this story, the focus is curiosity. Black and white photos of Einstein, a time line, and a bibliography conclude this biography recommended for readers 8 to 14 years old. [Einstein, Albert; Physicists]

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky (Boston: Joy Street Books, 1994).

“Describes the life and work of Eratosthenes, the Greek geographer and astronomer who accurately measured the circumference of the Earth.” – CIP. Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.

The Boy Who Loved Math : the Improbable Life of Paul Erdős by Deborah Heiligman (New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2013).

“Growing up in Hungary during WWI, Erdos tried school but chafed at the rules and convinced his mother that he should study at home. He was fascinated by numbers from an early age, and by the time he was 20, he was known as The Magician from Budapest. Unable to do common tasks such as cooking, laundry, or driving, he spent his adult life flying around the world, staying with other mathematicians, and working collaboratively on challenging math problems.” – CIP.

F

Ben Franklin’s Big Splash: the Mostly True Story of His First Invention by Barb Rosenstock (Honesdale, Penn.: Calkins Creek, 2014).

G

Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown and Co., 2011).

The Watcher: Jane Goodall’s Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter (Schwartz and Wade, 2011).

L

Caroline’s Comets: A True Story by Emily Arnold McCully.  New York: Holiday House, 2017.
Caroline Herschel was born in Germany in 1750. Her father and brothers were musicians but she – being a girl – was kept busy doing housework. Everything changed when she was 22 years old. She joined her older brother in England and became a professional singer and then an assistant to her brother, who had become an astronomer for King George III. Later, she also earned a salary as an astronomer for the king.  Before she died in 1848, she had discovered 8 comets and become a star among scientists.
Quotations from Caroline’s diary are embedded in this incredible story of the first woman to discover a comet. The gently old-fashioned pen, ink, and watercolour illustrations enhance this picture book biography for readers 9 years old and up.

Of Numbers and Stars by D. Anne Love (Holiday House, 2006).
Almost 2000 years ago in Egypt, in the famous city of Alexandria, a girl was born who would grow up to be a teacher renowned for her knowledge of science, mathematics and philosophy. People came from all over to learn from her and to seek her advice. Unfortunately, eventually, more powerful people in Alexandria became displeased with her independent thinking. This gently illustrated and informative picture book biography tells Hypatia’s (Hi-PAY-shu’s) story in a style reminiscent of Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney and is suitable for readers – and listeners – aged eight to eighty. [Egypt, Ancient; Hypatia; Mathematicians; Philosophers]

J

Becker, Helaine. Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2018.

Katherine was a child who loved numbers. But in the 1920s and ’30s, girls did not grow up to become mathematicians. So Katherine became a school teacher. Until in the 1950s, she finally got a chance to work for America’s National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. For 35 years, her calculations of flight-paths helped to safely send astronauts around the world, to the moon, and back again to Earth. She died on February 24, 2020 at 101 years of age. This picture book illustrated by Dow Phumiruk is highly recommended for curious readers 9 years old and up.

K

 Kati’s Tiny Messengers by Megan Hoyt (New York: Quill Tree Books, 2023).

Young Kati loved science. She loved observing, experimenting, and thinking about the world around her. She especially liked learning about the human body and how all the parts worked together. Kati’s family was poor and lived in a one-room house with no running water, but that did not stop her from studying hard. She finished high school with the top grades in her class and was accepted into university, earning a BSc in biology and a PhD in biochemistry, and then continuing her research into the genetic code inside cells and the messenger RNA inside the nucleus of each cell. She was sure that those tiny messengers could be used to fight viruses. Meanwhile, Kati got married. She had a baby daughter. But she kept working in her lab until her university ran out of money and she lost her job. What would she do now? Kati and her husband decided to leave Hungary and move to the United States, where she found a new job. For over 30 years, she worked with other scientists to discover how mRNA could be used to help the human body fight off viruses. And then the Covid-19 pandemic arrived. Suddenly, all Kati had discovered during her decades of research was urgently needed. She and her team quickly prepared a vaccine, which was tested on thousands of volunteers. It worked. Katalin Karikó’s lifetime of research had proven itself.  This picture book biography – illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger – is highly recommended as a read-aloud for children 6 to 10 years old. It is even more highly recommended – despite the storytelling style – for older students who prefer nonfiction and middle school teachers who want to expand the general knowledge of their students. An afterword includes a timeline, detailed information about DNA and RNA, and a message from Katalin Karikó.

L

Ada Lovelace: Poet of Science : the First Computer Programmer by Diane Stanley (New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016). 

What a brilliant biography! The style of writing is lively and humorous!  The illustrations by Jessica Hartland enhance the mood and extend the story. The story is engaging, and additional information – including a bibliography and glossary – is found at the end of the book. Highly recommended for all ages. [Babbage, Charles; Lovelace, Ada King, Countess of; Mathematicians; Women computer programmers]

M

Alary, Laura. The Astronomer Who Questioned Everything: The Story of Maria Mitchell. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2022.
Two hundred years ago on Nantucket, a little girl grew up with parents who believed both boys and girls should be educated. Her father was a schoolteacher and an astronomer and her mother had been a librarian, so it is not surprising that Maria and her nine siblings were encouraged to learn and think for themselves. Maria, a daydreamer, grew up to become a teacher and a librarian who loved challenges. When the King of Denmark offered a prize to the first person who could find a new comet, Maria determinedly looked through her telescope night after night until she spied a new comet. She won! Now she was famous and was soon invited to be a professor of astronomy. Maria spent the rest of her life encouraging her students to explore the skies and ask questions. Additional biographical information and a bibliography accompany this picture book cheerfully illustrated by Ellen Rooney. Highly recommended for readers 8 to 14 years old who enjoy true stories about historical figures.

P.S. The author’s combination of short and long sentences and sentence fragments creates a lovely rhythm for reading aloud. So lovely that it almost seems a shame to read the story silently. But the style of font is unfortunately not so lovely: the print is too serious and too small for the pictures. But that’s a minor fault compared to the beauty of the illustrations and the flow of the words. If you want a happy story that encourages patient persistence, read this book.

Buzzeo, Toni. A Passion for Elephants: The Real Life Adventures of Field Scientist Cynthia Moss. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2015.
Cynthia Moss was not afraid of big things. Born in 1940, she grew up to become on of the most important elephant researchers in the whole world. This colourfully illustrated picture book will be appreciated by readers – and listeners – 7 to 14 years old. The smoothly flowing language and cheerful pictures will inspire writers and artists to create their own works of art. The courage and determination portrayed in this biography will encourage everyone to work hard to reach their goals in life.

Reid, Megan. Maryam’s Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani. New York: Balzer + Bray, 2021.
Are you a numbers person? Do you enjoy working with equations? Or are you a word person? Do you like reading and writing? Or do you like both mathematics and stories?
Maryam preferred stories. Until – when she was 12 years old – she discovered geometry. Now she could turn numbers into shapes! And shapes made stories! This inspiring picture book biography tells the story of the first woman and first Iranian to win the prestigious Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Accompanied by additional facts and references at the end, it is recommended for readers 7 to 11 years old. 

N

Isaac Newton by Kathleen Krull (Viking, 2006).

P

The Fire of Stars: The Life and Brilliance of the Woman Who Discovered What Stars Are Made Of by Kirsten W. Larson (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2023).
In 1869, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev devised the periodic table of elements which every student now learns about at an early age. But when that list of elements was created, no one knew for sure what elements were in the stars. No one. Not until over 50 years later, when 25-year-old Cecilia Payne figured out how to determine what elements – and how much of each element – were in the stars we see at night. Beautifully illustrated by Katherine Roy, this picture book is supplemented by extensive additional information including a detailed timeline and lengthy bibliography. It is highly recommended for science students of all ages.   

P.S. The style of writing is a bit stilted: A bit too much alliteration. A verb in past tense that should be in present tense. Some metaphors a little over the top. But the flow makes the story lovely as a read-aloud for younger kids. And the information is fascinating for readers of any age. 

S

Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson (New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2014). Highly recommended for ages 8-years-old and up. 

T

Westergaard, Azadeh. A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla. New York: Viking, 2021.
When people think of a Tesla, they think of a car that is very expensive. But who was the real Tesla? Was he wealthy?
Born in 1856 in a small village high in the mountains of what is now Croatia, young Nikola loved animals and books and coming up with inventions. When he was twenty-six, he he had a new idea: a motor that could send electric currents forward and backward along a wire. We now know that as alternating current and Nikola Tesla was the person who invented the AC induction motor. But even though he moved to America and patented many electrical inventions, he never became wealthy. Why? This picture book biography – with extensive additional information and a bibliography – provides the answer. It tells the story of a man with an incredible mind who became known for his kindness towards all living creatures. Highly recommended for readers 7 years old and up. 

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