LitPick Review
John Grant’s Eureka! is a book about 50 male and female scientists from all over the world and from ancient to modern times. The essays contain biographical and scientific information, are 3 to 4 pages long, and often include a black and white photo.
Each article begins with an italicized one-sentence description of how the person contributed to science and ends with a “But there’s more...” section, which either gives fun facts or tells readers where more information can be found. More trivia also appears in footnotes that appear throughout the book, and a huge “Who’s Who” list of famous people appears in its index.
Opinion:
John Grant has written an amazing book of trivia that is well rounded and only about 200 pages long. It reads like an interesting encyclopedia rather than a novel, so it is great for young adults who want to read something when they only have a few minutes at a time.
Some of the scientists featured are well known, but others were new to me. I always recognized the important contribution to science that appears at the beginning of each essay though and thought, “wow, so this is who figured that out?” I enjoyed seeing the pictures of each person and reading their personal stories. Grant makes them come to life as the hardships they overcame to reach their goals is woven into information about their lifetime accomplishments.
