43. Who Was Albert Einstein

Title: Who Was Albert Einstein?
Author: Jess Brallier
Illustrator: Robert Andrew Parker
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Copyright Date: 2002
Number of Pages: 101
Reading Level: 9+
Genre: Nonfiction/Biography

Summary
Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was almost four years old and it was to tell his mother that the soup was too hot. They asked why he hadn’t spoken and he said up until then everything had been okay. Albert excelled in school and in his spare time enjoyed thinking above all else. Albert taught himself complex math from books and enjoyed school until high school began. In high school he was not expected to ask questions but to remain quiet. Albert hated this environment. Eventually Albert’s family left and moved to Italy but left him to complete his schooling. Albert was kicked out of school for smart mouthing and for being what they called a lazy dog. Albert was disappointed that he was thrown out of school but he was happy to reunite with his family again. The Italian people were much kinder than the people in Germany. Albert moved to Switzerland to go back to school eventually and became a citizen. He married Mileva, his first wife, and they had two children. While married to Mileva, Albert wrote and thought of most of his monumental stuff. Some speculate that some of Albert’s ideas were actually Mileva’s. Albert gets a job back in Germany and decides to take it because it would allow him to think more. Albert and his wife get a divorce and she stays behind in Switzerland. Albert meets up with his cousin, Elsa, and they get married. Elsa takes good care of Albert because he won’t eat, sleep, or wake unless someone tells him to. She has to make sure that he takes care of himself. The nazis start to rise in Germany and many of Alberts books are burned. Germany dislikes his free thinking and peace-keeping ways. There are books of people wanted in Germany. Albert is pictured on the first page of some of these with the caption “Not yet hanged.” Albert and Elsa go to the United States and Albert teaches at Princeton. Albert’s greatest fear is that Germany will create an atom bomb before the U.S. can so he volunteers to start work on one. This is one of his greatest disappointments is the creation of the atom bomb. Before his death Albert wrote a letter to dignitaries to stop nuclear war. He believed if there were a world war III people afterwards would have to throw sticks and stones at each other because all human civilization would cease and the world would begin again.

Recommendation
I would recommend this to someone who was interested in the great thinkers of the world. I wouldn’t highly recommend it though.

Problems/Conflict
There were some things put into the book that had no actual proof that they took place, they were either stories or speculation with nothing to back them up. I thought this was not a strong point. I don’t want to read something about a real person that may not have been true.

My Reaction
I liked that when a boy asked why he didn’t wear socks he replied that he was old enough now he didn’t have to. I found out a lot of interest facts about Einstein but I was a little disappointed in the sourcing for the information.