Friday, December 14, 2007

NATURE'S BEAUTY AT IT'S COLDEST


Wilson A. Bentley, a.k.a. Snowflake Bentley, becomes fascinated with snowflakes at a very young age. As a boy, Wilson tried to draw the snowflakes he inspected with his microscope, but they would always melt before he could capture what they truly looked like. When he turned seventeen, his parents bought him a special camera with a microscope built in so that he could photograph the snowflakes and show the delicate designs of each one. This biography tells the story of an interesting man from the late 1800s, but Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin reads like historical fiction. On the sides of each page are random facts that add to the story. This is a Caldecott Medal winner for the fantastic woodcut illustrations by Mary Azarian. A wonderful story for third grade and up.

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