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Albert Einstein: A Life of Genius

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Albert Einstein was one of the most brilliant scientists who ever lived. The theories that he formulated about time, light and gravity have changed how we look at the world, and resulted in many new inventions. But did you know that he was so absent-minded that he once forgot where he lived? Or that, even though he was an advocate of world peace, his work led to the creation of the atom bomb? Using photographs, maps, quotes, letters and drawings, this biography in the Snapshots: Images of People and Places in History series introduces young readers to Albert Einstein. Also included are a timeline of his life and a list of places to visit to learn more about one of history's greatest thinkers.

32 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1998

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196 people want to read

About the author

Elizabeth MacLeod

114 books31 followers
Elizabeth MacLeod was born on October 21 in Toronto. As a child Liz liked to read Nancy Drew and Anne of Green Gables books, swim, sing, dance, and hang out with her friends. Encouraged by her parents, she began writing stories and poetry for her own enjoyment at the age of 10, her favorite subjects being mad scientists and tyrants who threatened to take over the world.

Today Liz is inspired by almost anything--her friends, reading, and the funny, beautiful world around her. Her first job in publishing was at OWL magazine, and Liz credits editor Sylvia Funston as one of her mentors. Liz also names Valerie Wyatt, a writer and editor, as an important influence on her work, as well as a good friend.

An avid reader, Liz enjoyed digging up amazing facts and researching historic royals and their countries and customs for Royal Murder (2008). She encourages anyone with a desire to write to "just do it." Even if no one ever reads it, the joy that comes from expressing yourself through words is reward enough. Liz adds that writing takes practice, and with each day you are bound to improve.

Liz lives in Toronto with her husband, Paul, and their two cats, Smedley and Cosmo.

She enjoys keeping active, spending time with friends, music, theater, and cheering on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Liz plans to continue writing about a broad spectrum of topics in both fiction and non-fiction, and would like to work on more picture books in the future.

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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
102 reviews
June 25, 2017
This book is kind of like a descriptive, visual biography of Albert Einstein. It's focus is for kids and that's evident with the writing style, illustrations, and pictures in the book. Some pages are heavy with text and have very few pictures, but the opposite page then has many pictures with little text. It's a stimulating book to the eye.

This book is a snapshot of Einstein's life. It tells how his grandma thought he was too fat as a kid with a misshapen head, how he failed the entrance exams for the Institute his first time, and how first job was in a patent office. He and his wife Mileva also had a daughter that they gave up for adoption because having children out of wedlock was taboo. This book follows Einstein through his career as a professor, a father, and an inventor. One interesting piece to note is that Einstein fled Germany and Europe during the rise of power of the Nazi party. He helped more than 200 Jews escape Germany and flee to the United States.
Profile Image for Andrew.
10 reviews
December 7, 2017
I think that this book really touches on Albert Einstein's life, it explained his theories really well. It really helped me, and I think it's a good biography of him. I think that if you like science and scientists, you should read this.
263 reviews3 followers
September 18, 2023
Well written for that age level and a fun read.
36 reviews
April 21, 2015
1. Personal Reaction: This book was very interesting and very factual all about Einstein. Through all of the things that he had learned and done throughout his life. Since, this book is very recent the book has really good quality pictures and has little pictures on the side with captions to describe them. This book would be really good to do a biography on with this book.
2. Purpose/Use in the classroom: The genre of this book is considered to be a biography. A science unit could be done on Albert Einstein or even a social studies unit about all of the things that he went through in his lifetime. This book could be mostly used for third through sixth graders who can read it on their own for example for a project. Some literary elements that could be taught in this story is characterization which shows the quotes of what Einstein said in real life but from a long time ago. This book has a lot of nonfiction conventions in the book: titles, headings, boldface, italics, labels, index, Table of contents, and lastly a description of Albert Einstein. All of these little things are shown throughout the book. For example, description being all the information about him. Titles, headings, boldface, italics, labels, content, and index is used to show and describe all of the information about Albert.
3. Diverse Perspectives: The diversity that is used in the story is the quotes of what he said. Or even the kind of work he had done. This could be used to teach children about all of the different things he developed in his lifetime.
37 reviews
May 5, 2015
Personal Reaction- I think this book was very good. It is chalk full of information and I read so much stuff that I didn't know about him. The book is filled with pictures and captions and little blurbs on each page giving fun facts. This was a fun read and full of useful information and photos.
Read Aloud: I would use this as a read aloud for a science unit on the background and lives of scientists.
Independent Reading: I would assign this to a child in maybe 4th grade to read on their own if they were interested in the idea of physics and Albert's theories.
Students could use the index at the back of the book to navigate through the book easier. The book also includes a timeline of Albert's life at the end. This would correlate great with a lesson on sequence of events and how to find that within a story. There are also captions under each picture which will help the students better understand exactly whats going on.
45 reviews4 followers
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December 10, 2010
Biography: This book was well-done and extremely interesting. I learned things I hadn't known about Einstein; one being that he married his cousin, another that his brain did not split all the way down like the rest of our brains do, likely increasing potential for nerve connections.
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4,082 reviews11 followers
March 22, 2010
An excellent first biography of Einstein with quotes, illustrations and interesting comments from AE himself. Part of my son's history/science curriculum.
56 reviews1 follower
April 12, 2011
It has a lot of new information and isn't covered with words on every page. This book is special, because it shows more about Albert Einstein's personal life like he played the violin.
Profile Image for Scott.
183 reviews7 followers
February 22, 2016
Very nice, short, summary of the life of a remarkable man.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews

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