Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein

by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson

These insightful biographies highlight men and women who have struggled to overcome adversity to accomplish their goals. Along the way, these inspiring people have blazed a trail through history.

Genres: Biography, Science, Nonfiction, History, History Of Science, Biography Memoir, Childrens

Library Binding

First published December 12, 1995

About the author

Stephanie Sammartino McPherson wrote her first children's story in college. She enjoyed the process so much that she's never stopped writing. A former teacher and freelance newspaper writer, she has written twenty-eight books and numerous magazine stories. She especially enjoys writing about science and the human interest stories behind major discoveries.

Stephanie and her husband, Richard, live in Virginia but also call California home. They are the parents of two grown children.

Reviews

[Michael Perrino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that this book was okay but focused to much on his theories and experiment and not as much on his life which is more important in a biographical book then his studies.

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I really didn’t know much about Albert Einstein, this children’s biography was interesting. Yes, my brain was spinning as I attempted to understand how someone could use math to figure out things like Einstein did, but it was still interesting. Did I understand everything that was being talked about? No. But there wasn’t much that had me confused. I found his life interesting to read about even if I didn’t agree with everything he did.

[Bobbiann Markle · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son and I read this biography for school (AmblesideOnline Year 6). It was interesting and easy to understand. He gives it 4.5 stars.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a read aloud I expected to learn from but not enjoy. Another instance of being happy to be wrong. I laughed at Einstein’s humor and questions about what happened around him. I cried when I read about the beginnings of WWII and then laughed again over his response to some children who asked why he didn’t wear socks.

It was informative, succinct, engaging, and contained a good bibliography and index for its subject and length.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and well written, however for a kids biography it focused a bit much on the details of his theories and discoveries. Found myself skipping some of the more technical parts in order to keep my young audience engaged. I think I prefer my biographies to read more like stories than text books.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book feeling that I had been personally introduced to Albert Einstein. I am no scientist, but I love the concept of a unified field theory.

[Bette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a biography for students. However, I learned alot about this brilliant, gifted man.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordinary Genius is a biography of Albert Einstein. It tells about how Albert Einstein was born in Germany and moved to multiple different countries throughout his life and how he loved math so much when doing he would even skip meals. One thing I really liked when reading the book was that Albert Einstein loved math in the same way I love reading.

[Spencer W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Month: October
Book: Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein
Author: Stephanie Sammartino McPherson


Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. Born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm Germany, Albert showed an aptitude for math and science when he was a child. In fact, he taught himself calculus when he was only twelve years old. Ironically, Albert’s genius made him feel out of place and led to him becoming disinterested in school. This caused his grades to suffer and he eventually dropped out of high school. Despite those challenges, he later finished high school and was accepted into the Polytechnic School in Switzerland where he studied to become a university science professor. After graduation he was unable to find a job at a university, so he looked elsewhere. Albert got his first job working at the Swiss Patent Office in 1902. He was never very satisfied at the Patent Office and continued his true passion of researching physics during the day when no one was looking in the office and in his free time at night for the next three years. In 1905 Albert had what some called his “miracle year” where he published four different scientific research papers. His papers were on the photoelectric effect, brownian motion, special relativity, and mass energy equivalence. After these papers were published his popularity grew and in 1913 he was asked to become a professor of physics at the University of Berlin. While teaching in Berlin he began working on the general theory of relativity which made him one of the most famous scientists in the world after it was published in 1916. He continued to advance his theories until Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. In December, 1932 Albert decided to flee from Germany to the United States to avoid persecution because he was Jewish. Once he was in America, Albert helped other Jewish refugees by signing affidavits of support which were required for entry into the United States. As World War II progressed, Albert Einstein was asked to help build the atomic bomb. Although Albert was a pacifist and believed the deaths and suffering that the the atomic bomb would cause were wrong, he chose to help the United States because he believed that if Nazi Germany built the atomic bomb first even more people would suffer and die. Three years after the war ended the newly founded country of Israel asked Albert to become its first president because of his fame, his work helping Jewish refugees during the war, and his advocacy for the creation of a Jewish state. Surprisingly, he chose to decline this offer because he felt he was unqualified. Albert Einstein continued to research physics until he passed away on April 18th 1955 but his contributions to the world of science will inspire generations to come.
One of the most powerful themes in the book Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein is that sometimes you must chose the lesser evil so that a greater evil doesn’t happen. Albert had to choose whether or not to use his genius with physics to build the atomic bomb, the most devastating weapon known to mankind at the time but one that could let the United States end the war sooner with less bloodshed. While Albert was a pacifist, he knew that if Nazi Germany was able to build their atomic bomb first, they would most likely use it to continue their world conquest, killing millions in the process. Because of this, Albert Einstein chose to put his pacifistic beliefs aside and helped to build the atomic bomb for the United States. His decision averted what could have been a very different and much darker future for us all.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

11. If you could ask any character a question , who would you ask?

Q1 Nuclear weapons were created based on your special theory of relativity. How do you think about that? He si a theoretical physicist. I think that he didn't wantt his works used for making weapon.
Q2 You were a good violinist. If you would continue studying the violin, did you succeed as a violinist? I didn't know that he had a good talent about violin before read this book. Good is notfair because he got two good talent. I think he would be succeed as violinist. Because he would challenge everthing patiently.

12. Are you puzzled or confused about anything in the story?

I can't under stand special theory of relativity that if you multiply the mass of a body by the speed of light, them multiply your answer by the speed of light gaain. You will know how much energy is locked inside the object. Because the speed of light is so great , a ver ysmall amount of energy. I learned about thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and mechanical engineering fifteen years ago. However I don't understand this meaning

[Himawari Ogawa · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. Publisher; Jake Ronaldoson
Company; IBC Publishing
Level; 1

2, Time 10/27 15mins
10/28 30mins
10/29 16mins

3, Book, math, physics, good student, war, idea, famous

4, Do you like reading books??
→Yes I do. If I had a time to read books, I would want to read not only English books but also Japanese books.
We make timing to read English books but it's difficult for me to make timing to read Japanese books now.lol

Are you a good student?
→ I hope so. lol I know that I am not smart but I try to do hard everything to be a good student.

5, Before I read this book, I read "The Diary of Anne Frank". I noticed that the that book and this book was same time's book. I have heard of him but I don't know him. So this book gave me good chance to know about him. and this book's level is level 1, so it's easy for me to read it. I was surprised because he was shy about his efforts when he was a kid. I can understand his feeling.

[Andrew Vanleuvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an autobiography about Albert Einstein. Also it tells you about his life was and how it went. I thought it was a good book because it showed you all the things that he did over the time that he lived. For example it showed how he was a genius in science. He figured out what no one else could. If you like science and its your favorite subject, I highly recommend this book. But if it is not your favorite subject, then I wouldn't recommend this book to you. Since I like math and science, I liked this book as well. This book got me more interested in science after reading this book. I learned things that I didn't even know was that important. In the book it tells us the Theory of Motion, i always that people always knew that and no one actually came up with that. So if you like to learn new things or take an interest in science, I would recommend this book to you.

[Tristan Ng · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was very interesting how Albert Einstein was raised and all of his invention. The book was very interesting how he invented things like the speed of light and the famous equation E=MC2. The book was very interesting how Albert Einstein had the knowledge to created very useful thing. The book was very interesting because then it shows so much cool information and Albert Einstein and how he took advantage of his books and that's how he created the quantum theory. In his life he had signifigant acomplishments in his life like winning the Nobel Peace Prize of Physics.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This semi-lengthy book follows the life of Albert Einstein. It is separated by chapters and the pages are full of words with little photos. The images that are there are interesting because they are real photos from the era and his family. The photos make the book because they are real, they are black and white and really show what he was about and his life. They even have pictures and diagrams of some of his experiments.

[Kendall Kraiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great way to incorporate science into the language arts curriculum. This biography is about the great Albert Einstein. It would be a great book for 4th or 5th grade students to look at during in class reading time or even use for a book report. It is a good book to use for introducing biographies for the first time to students.

[Jack Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting biography of Albert Einstein! Usually biographies are just okay but this one was really interesting and I couldn't take my eyes off of it!

[Leslie Gildart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just right for a sixth grader - lots of information without being overwhelming. http://www.amazon.com/review/R2EBZ1UT...

[COOOL]

hi hi

[Johnny G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book is worth four stars if you want to come back to it and find out what's next. That's how I felt learning about Albert Einstein. He really wanted to bring positive change to the world and explain some things that people could not explain (at that time). I had no idea that he was a pacifist (wanted peace, didn't tolerate war) and how close he was to being caught and probably killed by the Nazis. If only he had lived past 76 we would know more about our world because he was one of the greatest geniuses in the world!