The six scientists who are featured in this collection of mini biographies are: Eugenie Clark - a zoologist who specialized in sea life and discovered the first effective shark repellent; Gertrude Elion - a chemist who was a pioneer in drug development and even won a Nobel Prize; Katherine Coleman Johnson who worked as a computer for the space program and was instrumental in many of the early space flights being successful; Marie Tharp who mapped the ocean floor; Florence Hawley Ellis an archaeologist, anthropologist and ethnologist who studied the ancient inhabitants of North America; and Eleanor Margaret Burbidge - an astronomer who was a pioneer in her field and developed equipment that could record a quasar.
These mini-biographies would work nicely as a springboard in a career unit or a biography unit, however, although it is short it is not simple. The vocabulary is often challenging (inauspicious, heresy, inferiority), and while a glossary is included, it confines itself to scientific terms. It’s a larger format book, more the size of a picture book, but this was not used to the reader’s advantage as the photographs are neither colorful nor large. The format of the book makes it appear it is for a younger audience, but the layout and difficulty targets an older reader. Not sure where to put this - Middle School perhaps, but probably not as an independent read.
MS - OPTIONAL Lisa Librarian
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