On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein

"Now Albert could spend all his days doing what he loved - imagining, wondering, figuring, and thinking."
This is one of my favorite quotes from the book, as it captures what is necessary for creative though - the freedom to direct one's thoughts and musings at one's whim. The page that tells about young Albert's teacher makes me so sad, "They said he would never amount to anything unless he learned to behave like all the other students." How much of our student's imagination and creativity is stymied because of the need for conformity? This makes me ask myself, as an educator, how can I allow my student's imagination, creativity, and ingenuity to thrive while also maintaining the necessary order and routine to allow for the smooth show more operations of daily classroom life? I would read this book as a read-aloud at the beginning of the year to emphasize a classroom culture of inquiry and discovery. I would also include it in the "biography" section of my classrooom library. show less

This book is so beautifully designed and illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky that it is impossible not to be drawn into the story. But the author does an excellent job with the text as well. Einstein is depicted as curious, charmingly eccentric, and always deep in thought, “sometimes eating an ice-cream cone.”

When Einstein was little, he imagined racing through space on a beam of light. What would happen if he did that? He began to read and study. He continued to wonder about everything even as an adult:

"Albert watched a lump of sugar dissolve and disappear into his hot tea. How could this happen? He watched the smoke from his pipe swirl and disappear into the air. How could one thing disappear into another?"

He thought about very big show more things, like the size of the universe, and very small things, like what goes on inside the tiniest particles.

Some of his ideas about how things worked are presented in a simple way, but mostly there are just indications of the importance of his thinking:

"Albert’s ideas helped build spaceships and satellites that travel to the moon and beyond. His thinking helped us understand our universe as no one ever had before.”

Best of all, the book asserts that “Albert left us many big questions....Questions that someday YOU may answer...by wondering, thinking, and imagining.”

Illustrator Radunsky is a treasure. His pen and ink images on textured paper defy space and gravity, pay homage to evolution, and show how the medium can be meta, as with his use of pointillism on the pages devoted to Einstein’s meditations on atoms, and his playful expression of perspective: it's all relative! The cleverness and whimsy of the pictures are a perfect fit for the story of Einstein.

End notes include a list of additional resources.

Evaluation: I have looked at the pictures over and over in this book. Chronicle Books, which specializes in works of art and design, has done an excellent job in putting together this book. It will encourage young children to see not only the possibilities of imagination, but will also give them an appreciation for the beauty and delight of artistic rendition.

Highly recommended! show less

This book is outstanding. It begins with parents who worry about their son who is very late to talk, but love him because he is their baby. We then follow the course of this child's education, from spontaneous observations and great wonderment to being treated as a nuisance in the classroom to his audodidactic years and through the development of his theory of relativity -- in writing accessible to children. A great example of the standout illustrations is the two-page spread, made of noticeable dots, on which an Einstein made of such dots proclaims, "Even this book is made of atoms!" From beginning to end, the book encourages children to wonder, think, question and imagine, using Albert Einstein as a model. - Marla S.

This biography of Albert Einstein is also a tribute to curiosity. This book is very accessible to young children who do not yet understand the results of Einstein's imagination and curiosity. The artwork is an excellent match to the text - a couple of spreads convey a mind that never stopped reaching.

Top 100 pick because:

At first, I did not care for the illustrative style. The further along I read, however, the style grew on me, and by the end it seems like the perfect fit for the narrative and story of Albert Einstein. The style is unique, fit for one such as Albert. The text is also woven beautifully, words and thoughts carefully chosen, and the basics of his life condensed into understandable terms. It also does a great job of motivating you to learn; to want to question and think and discover.

Quirky art depicts an upbeat story that would be a great introduction to studying Einstein. I would also use this as a growth mindset text, loving how different of a student he was.

A quick treatment of the genius of Einstein. This book, illustrated with a messy style reminiscent of Einstein's own haphazard appearance, is a very simple introduction to his work. The actual ideas that Einstein worked with are given only a sentence or two. This book mostly focuses on the idea that genius often comes with differences, and those are what made Einstein unique, and what enabled him to ferret out some of the most baffling ideas in science. Not so much a science supplement for introducing his theories, but a great book for kids who struggle with feeling different.