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2005
finalists.

2005 Hackmatack

Children's Choice Book Award/Prix littéraire - le choix de jeunes

Albert Einstein was one of the most brilliant scientists who ever lived. The theories that he formulated about time, light and gravity have changed how we look at the world, and resulted in many new inventions. But did you know that he was so absent-minded that he once forgot where he lived? Or that, even though he was an advocate of world peace, his work led to the creation of the atom bomb?

Using photographs, maps, quotes, letters and drawings, this biography introduces young readers to Albert Einstein. Also included are a timeline of his life and a list of places to visit to learn more about one of history's greatest thinkers.

Born in Thornhill, Ontario, Elizabeth MacLeod is the author of The Wright Brothers: A Flying Start, Helen Keller: A Determined Life, I Heard a Little Baa and What Did Dinosaurs Eat? She has been nominated for the Hackmatack Award before, for Stamp Collecting: for Canadian Kids in 2000, Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life in 2001 and Lucy Maud Montgomery: A Writer's Life in 2003.

Thematic Links

• Famous people
• Genius and geniuses
• Creativity, asking questions
• Education
• Time, Light, Gravity

Suggested Activities

• Research solar and lunar eclipses. When is the next one that you'll be able to see where you live?
• Find out about patents, then eat a Toblerone chocolate bar in Albert's honour!
• Find out about other famous scientists like Copernicus, Galilei, James Maxwell and Newton.
• Find out more about the Doomsday Clock. Look at www.thebulletin.org/clock.html to get started.
• Create a time line for a famous person or yourself (p.30-31).
• On page 25 you can see the letter Albert wrote the president encouraging the US to build an atomic bomb. What do you think Albert said in the second letter about the dangers of the bomb?
• Check out Kids Can's website about learning through biographies, open Albert Einstein, then click on the 'download activity' icon.