Great Scientists

September 1, 2007
Thistitle inthe familiar, slightly revamped Eyewitness seriesintroduces the work of pioneering scientists, beginning with Aristotle and ending with Stephen Hawking. Women arent entirely ignored, although only two are among the 30 inclusions, with one or two more brieflyidentified elsewhere in the text. The design is busy, but never seems crowded. Each two-page spread features an introductory paragraph summarizinga scientists contributionwith a sentence or two of personal information, a time line, and a small picture of the individual. The remainder of the spread is a scattering of sharp photos, extensively captioned in very small type, thataim toestablishthehistorical effect of the scientists work.The information delivery is hit-and-miss, but Fortey opens the way to some interesting questions (what, for example, were the details ofRichardFeynmans accusations against NASAafter the 1986 Challenger explosion?).Unfortunately, there areno resources to helpreaders answer them. As faras piquing interest goes, however, the authors approach works well; it will even attract older readers. Aslipcased poster and aCD of clip art are included.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)