Publication Date: March 22, 2022
Synopsis:
The Great Minds series introduces young children to the greatest scientists of all time. First up: Alexander von Humboldt, the father of the climate movement. For researchers ages 9 years and up.
Young Alexander von Humboldt’s pockets are always full of treasures from the forest: stones, insects, plants, and fossils. In the second half of the nineteenth century, he grows up to become a science-adventurer and climate genius. His expeditions take him all over the world and lead to many new discoveries.
My Review:
Kiddo (2nd grade) and I read this after reading a truly excellent biography of Alexander von Humboldt that was much longer. I was curious about how Humboldt’s story would be presented in this much shorter format, and if the author would choose to highlight the same information.
This is actually quite a good summary of the events covered in more detail in the other book. There is also a greater focus in this book on Humboldt’s role in climate science and activism.
The pictures are colorful and engaging and really draw the reader in. The additional information and activities presented in the sidebars are cool but I wish they’d used a different font. The script font is often difficult to read and did decrease our enjoyment of those sections somewhat – we were tempted to skip them altogether. If I hadn’t been reading this along with my kiddo, they would have skipped them because they would have been unable to read them.
Overall this is a great introduction to Alexander von Humboldt and his love of and contributions to many different branches of science and we enjoyed reading it very much and recommend it.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Clavis Publishing for providing an e-arc for review.
Whimsical Dragonette 