Carla Killough McClafferty

One would think that the first person to win not one, but two Nobel Prizes, would have people falling all over themselves to help. Need a new lab? Let us write the check. One would think that winning two Nobel Prizes would remove any question of ability. Perhaps today that may be more true, but Marie Curie’s time is not characterized by easy acceptance of phenomenally gifted, hard working women scientists. The academic community even tried to divest her of her medal and did not easily show more admit that she was qualified to work. This text shows Curie with all her warts, including her less than warm and loving treatment of her own family. It also shows an exceptionally secure, independent thinker who cares only about research. In fact, Curie never has any of her work protected by patents. Others use her discoveries to spark all sorts of specious products with patently false, even dangerous side effects. Without patent protection, Curie spends many wasted hours laboriously (but carefully) producing work that would be much faster and easier with the financial backing patent money could secure. Starting with the cover picture that screams, “radioactive” readers see just enough pictures to understand the humble nature of Curie’s work. We follow Curie through her childhood, her happy marriage to Pierre, until Curie’s discoveries lead inevitably and painfully to her death. McClafferty provides chapter notes and an abundance of references for the curious. Recommended for middle school and up. show less

McClafferty has previously written a number of nonfiction titles for children, including several about George Washington. In her latest book, she proves that while history may not change, the parts of it we choose to commemorate and remember certainly do.

George Washington is a primary historical figure and his military campaigns, political work, and position as a symbol of American independence has been assured (except for the third graders that got him mixed up with Abraham Lincoln...) But show more what about the slaves he owned? McClafferty follows Washington's changing views on slavery with personal documents and his own changing fortunes.

However, Washington is not the primary focus. The primary focus of this book is the hidden people who served Washington personally, on his plantation, and in the Nation's capital. The lives of four enslaved people and one couple are told, their hidden pasts brought to light. William Lee was Washington's trusted servant and stayed at his side through the Revolutionary War. When he was injured after the war, he was set to work making shoes. He remained at Mt. Vernon after Washington's death, when he was freed. Christopher Sheels, one of Martha Washington's slaves, was prevented from gaining his freedom first by the Washingtons, then by his own choice when he returned to Mt. Vernon, and finally when his attempt to escape with his wife was discovered. Caroline Branham and Peter Hardiman labored for many years for the Washingtons, Branham as a seamstress and maid and Hardiman as a rented carpenter and stablehand. Accolades given to the Washingtons for their hospitality, their horse breeding, and their innovative introduction of mules could more accurately have been attributed to the couple who did most of hard labor of these projects. Ona Maria Judge and Hercules, after long service to the Washingtons and despite many attempts to bring them - and their children - back to slavery - escaped.

McClafferty retells the story of the Washingtons and their time period through the eyes of their slaves. When visitors praised the George Washington's estates, they rarely mentioned the slaves who labored on them. When they wrote of the beauty and luxury of Mt. Vernon, they didn't mention the cooks, maids, seamstresses, and other slaves on whose labor it was built. After following up on the little that is known about the rest of the lives of these men and women after Washington's death, McClafferty turns to the history of Mt. Vernon and how the restoration of Washington's estate finally acknowledged and commemorated the slaves who had lived, worked, and died there.

Verdict: McClafferty peels back the pages of history and reveals, in moving but objective prose, the lives of the slaves owned and used by George Washington. Readers can reflect on the gap between Washington's spoken views on slavery and his actions, as well as how history has long ignored the contributions of these and other people.

ISBN: 9780823436972; Published 2018 by Holiday House; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less

I'm looking for great nonfiction to book talk to upper elementary kids, and I don't think this is going to work for me. I was liking it and then it suddenly took on an uncritical reverential football-worshiping voice. Up until then, it was an eye-opening account of the many young men who died playing football in the late 19th and early 20th century. Suddenly, the book flashes forward to the present day and football teams become perfect units dedicated to nothing but winning and they are show more heroes to the cheerleaders who form human tunnels for them to run through. Gag me.

I want to give this three stars because there's really good stuff here, but I just can't because of that big biased swerve in the middle of the book. Not to rant, but this is what's wrong with a lot of nonfiction for young people. They don't need or want to be condescended to as readers. Authors, please stick to reportage and analysis and leave out the hyperbolic fluff.

Nevertheless, I recommend this (with reservations). It's sure to catch the interest of reluctant readers and the info within is important. show less

Fascinating, informative and cautionary. This is a succinct introduction to the causes of concussions (primarily as it relates to football) and the current research into their impacts and treatments. If I had kids, I would totally not sign them up for football, soccer, rugby...!