EINSTEIN

This is a thoughtful and well-written biography of Einstein, a complicated man whose life and work Severance (Thomas Jefferson, 1998, etc.) chronicles clearly and firmly. He explains how Einstein challenged the established thinkers (Galileo and Newton) in the field of physics, after a childhood that included his parents’ concerns that their son might be mildly retarded. Even “his teachers considered him a bit stupid,” for he studied only what interested him and lacked “obedience and discipline.” Also covered is Einstein’s father’s gift of a compass, an object that seemed to unlock deeply hidden things about the universe. Severance sets forth Einstein’s contradictions as a man, but readers will appreciate this thinker’s role in constructing the framework of modern physics and extending science’s information on the universe. (b&w photos, chronology, bibliography, index) (Biography. 10-14)