I, Galileo

by Bonnie Christensen

Condemned by the Church to solitude and by nature to darkness (he’d gone blind),... read more

Condemned by the Church to solitude and by nature to darkness (he’d gone blind), Galileo reflects on a life filled with extraordinary vision and the discovery of truth in Bonnie Christensen’s artful picture book biography that imagines the scientist and astronomer’s first-person voice. “I was the first child, center of my parents’ universe. Life revolved around me.” Galileo describes his childhood education, his teaching, and above all his dedication to learning and discovery. Motion fascinated him. So, too, did the moon, the sun, and the planets. He was a meticulous observer and recorder, using the telescope he’d perfected to determine the earth revolves around the sun. After seven years of silence he finally published his observations. Heresy! said the Church. He was sentenced to live out his days a prisoner in his own home. End matter includes a brief summary of some of Galileo’s key experiments, inventions, and discoveries, as well as a chronology and source material for this narrative set against Christensen’s warm, eye-catching oil and gouache paintings. (Ages 6–10)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2013

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