This book is the top-of-primary-school equivalent of a coffee table book.
Although it’s arranged into four categories (biology, chemistry, physics, and “Amazing Earth & Space”), and within each category the scientists are arranged chronologically, there’s no real narrative to it. Each scientist’s single or double page spread works as a standalone introduction- two or three paragraphs explaining who they were and their scientific impact, surrounded by relevant illustrations or photos with insert boxes of text for context. This makes it really easy to just dip into for a minute, whenever you get the chance.
The “inspiring” promise of the book is nicely understated. It’s made clear how revolutionary some of these scientists’ ideas and contributions were, without banging on about them being super-clever or special, making the science feel accessible and understandable.
That said, the emphasis (as the title suggests) is on the scientists rather than the science that they pioneered, telling their stories rather than getting bogged down in the explanations. However some of the diagrams aid a broad understanding.
The age range is given as “7 - 9 years” but I think this book would be of interest to slightly older kids too. Some of the terms used are fairly advanced- I’m not sure how many 7-year-olds would be able to pronounce “Mohorovičić discontinuity” or “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome”, and some 7-year-olds might find both ideas somewhat scary too. As a grown-up with a Physics A-level there was still a huge chunk of information in this book I didn’t know, especially but not solely the biographical side of it.
I’m pleased to see that the compilation of this book is truly international. Instead of focussing primarily on European and American scientists as some other books and documentaries have been guilty of, this book makes space for major contributors from all around the world- to the extent that I begin to wonder whether when I was young, I was accidentally being fed a somewhat skewed view of scientific history.
This is a lovely coffee table style book, nicely presented and well bound, and in our family I think we’ll get rather a lot of use out of it, in bite-sized chunks.
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