Who Was Stephen Hawking?

Justification

The Who Was? book series began in 2002 and have since published over 200 short biographies of notable people in history. The series is a #1 New York Times best selling series. These books make learning about important historical figures easy and entertaining.

Evaluation

One of the best features of the Who Was? series is that in each book there are about eighty illustrations, at least one or two per page. The illustrations in Who Was Steven Hawking are black and white sketches with no color. However, these illustrations provide entertainment and help the reader understand what is happening in the book. This is especially true for struggling readers. The pictures for this book were well chosen and interesting. There are pictures of Stephen Hawking in a Zero Gravity flight with NASA, as a character in The Simpsons show, and even a picture with Steven Spielberg and E.T.

Who Was Stephen Hawking? also provides sidebars. In these sidebars the authors explain concepts written in the main text or just to give extra information. One sidebar in the book explained who Lou Gehrig was after the text mentioned that the disease Stephen Hawking had was called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease after the famous baseball player who also had ALS. Another sidebar explains that Stephen Hawking met Steven Spielberg, the creator of E.T. This was fun for Stephen Hawking because of his great knowledge and desire to learn about how the world came to be. The sidebar mentioned that Stephen Hawking also believed in aliens.

While some biographies might be more entertaining than others, Who Was Stephen Hawking? is an easy to read version. Many young people give biographies a wide berth because of the difficulty of the reading and they may believe it boring. The Who Was? series is made for young readers to be able to understand and enjoy. The sheer number of pictures also provides a level of entertainment.

Conclusion

A biography might not be a child’s first pick of books, but when prompted to read a biography, Who Was Stephen Hawking? Is a good choice. The story of Stephen Hawking is inspiring. The story of his life would make a great addition to elementary and public libraries for children.

Citation

Gigliotti, J. E. (2019). Who Was Stephen Hawking? Penguin Workshop.