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MARIE CURIE by Kaara Kallen

MARIE CURIE

From the It's Her Story series

by Kaara Kallen ; illustrated by Rosie Baker

Pub Date: Jan. 1st, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5037-5293-1
Publisher: Sunbird Books

A slim, heartwarming graphic biography gives a capsule view of the life and discoveries of Marie Curie.

Little Manya Skłodowska, growing up in 19th-century Poland, studies in secret. But Manya and her sisters, drawn with big-eyed and cherubic faces, look out for one another. First Manya works to send her sister Bronya to university, and then, finally, it’s her own turn. At the Sorbonne, in Paris, Manya—now going by Marie—earns repeated recognition for her work. She meets Pierre Curie, and they fall in love. There’s space here for Marie’s loving and happy relationship with Pierre, for the family they raise, for her research and two Nobel Prizes, and for her philanthropy. The sexism Marie encountered in her life is lightly touched upon, and the xenophobia not at all. Pierre, as pink-cheeked as Marie and almost as wide-eyed, is portrayed as an A-plus ally pushing for greater recognition of his wife’s achievements; Pierre Curie’s actual Nobel lecture provides his supportive words. This tiny volume doesn’t delve into the actual science, but it’s likable and irrepressibly cheerful (even though it covers Marie’s and Pierre’s tragic deaths). The illustrations of these White characters are as simple as the text: cartoonish and fond. The periodic table in the illustrations is inaccurate both for Curie’s time and for today, which is a shame.

Charmingly inspirational in tone despite a dearth of science heft.

(Graphic biography. 7-11)