Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky
| Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky | |
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| Category: Children's Non-Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: Fabulous set of mini biographies about women scientists from early history right up to the modern day. Perfect for encouraging girls into STEM fields. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 128 | Date: March 2017 |
| Publisher: Wren & Rook | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 1526360519 | |
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Women in Science takes fifty prominent women in STEM fields and celebrates their achievements. There are women from the ancient world and women working today. Each of them is given a double page spread including a stylised portrait and infoboxes with factoids on one side and a page of text with a brief biography and outline of her achievements. These intrepid women are inspirational for their work and their discoveries but also for the barriers they overcame - barred from classes or employment because they were women or even barred from employment because they were black in racially segregated America.
Ignotofsky has taken care to make her choices diverse in many ways. It's an American book and so it is skewed towards American women somewhat, particularly in terms of recent and living scientists, but readers will find a wide variety of nationalities, ethnic backgrounds, orientations and social classes. Girls will find someone who looks like them. Hooray! And it's not just a selection of the usual suspects either - Marie Curie is here, yes, but so are less famous women who were and are no less pioneering and brilliant.
I was particularly happy to see Rachel Carson, author of the environmental classic Silent Spring by Rachel Carson who was as much a poet as a scientist and whose work inspired a global environmental movement. And I loved the inclusion of film star Hedy Lamarr who invented a radio frequency spread-hopping method used to control torpedoes that forms the foundation of the GPS, wi-fi and bluetooth technologies that we use today. How cool is that?! I'll leave the other forty-eight entries for readers to discover brand new but there are physicists, engineers, mathematicians, biologists. There are timelines and statistics and more...
... and you know, Women in Science is also beautiful. Ignofotsky is a graphic designer and she has produced here not just beautiful illustrations that draw the eye and persuade it to linger, but also a great density of information distilled into nuggets of wonderful clarity. I could look at this book for hours. I wish I could have owned it as a child because I just know I would have returned to it over and over again.
Highly, highly recommended.
Girls (and boys) interested in science and technology might also enjoy Inventions in 30 Seconds by Dr Mike Goldsmith or Eye Benders: The Science of Seeing and Believing by Clive Gifford and Professor Anil Seth. You could shelve this next to Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky at Amazon.com.
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