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laurennov24's review
4.0
My 4th grader chose this biography for a classroom reading assignment. Young readers ages 8-10 or so (and their parents) will probably find it engaging. It appropriately portrays this trailblazer of science as a brilliant but flawed human being, rather than as a perfect man. Our family will definitely check out the Giants of Science series’s other biographies.
mjagears's review
I'd suggest any parent to read this prior to your child, but I'm not rating it since I simply scanned it and discarded it. I picked it up at the library and scanned it because it looked well, fluffy, and there was a part that I'm pretty sure the author bias was coming through in regards to how terrible church going must have been for him and then flipping through I saw the word "homosexual" and I thought, what has this got to do with a scientist biography for middle schoolers? And it was solely speculation that he might have been gay. Does this have anything to do with the man's scientific achievements? Perhaps if he were definitely gay and it kept him from presenting a paper in front of someone of importance or something, it might have been considered worthy to be included, but speculating on someone's sexuality without extensive looking into the matter when there is little proof should be reserved for an in depth study in an adult non-fiction book. A simple scan tells me that Krull's books will not make it onto my schooling list, unfortunately. Thankfully there was a book entitled Isaac Newton and Gravity by Steve Parker right next to it. More than just cartoon illustrations and must more appropriate for the "gathering facts" stage that is elementary school. And the only comment talking about his bachelorhood is he "was often awkward in social situations. He was a strong Protestant, he never married, and he avoided women."
iceangel9's review
3.0
Two well researched books on Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci. The illustrations are magnificent and the books are packed with information on these two "giants of science". A great way to make science readable.
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