Most of us have vague ideas about Marie Curie's life--that she discovered radium, that her beloved husband and fellow scientist, Pierre, was killed by a streetcar, and that she was the first woman to win the Nobel prize. But the details of her life, as revealed in Carla McClafferty's excellent new biography, are truly remarkable. For example, even though Marie isolated radium independently from Pierre, he was offered the Nobel prize without reference to her but refused to accept it unless she was included. Scientists wishing to study her papers have to sign a waiver because the materials are still dangerously radioactive. Marie's life is beautifully well-documented here, and the accompanying pictures are remarkable. The only drawback to the book is that a knowledge of the importance of the discovery or radium is presupposed--children becoming acquainted with Marie Curie for the first time are unlikely to understand why she was such a big deal, and although the hazards of radiation are laid out in great detail, its uses are vaguely presented. Still, a stellar achievement.
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
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