Born Curious: 20 Girls Who Grew Up to Be Awesome Scientists

FREEMAN, Martha. Born Curious: 20 Girls Who Grew Up To Be Awesome Scientists. illus. by Katy Wu. 128p. S. & S./Paula Wiseman Bks. Feb. 2020. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9781534421530.

Gr 3-5–Freeman shares 20 short biographies of women scientists—from geologists and molecular biologists to mathematicians and all the disciplines in between. The author finds a common thread between all of them: They were born curious. But it wasn’t enough to simply be born curious. These scientists had obstacles and challenges to overcome. Each woman dealt with societal barriers that could have derailed their studies. Geochemist Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911) overcame poverty and sexism. Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson (born in 1946) was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate…

Few of the women in this captivating compendium are household names: Joan Beauchamp Proctor “pioneered humane design for zoo habitats”; Tu Youyou, a pharmacologist, used traditional Chinese medicine to develop a treatment for malaria; and Ingrid Daubechies’s wavelet theory led to image compression technology. Freeman uses direct quotations and childhood anecdotes (of Daubechies: “The girl likes making doll clothes because she likes solving problems”) to convey character, an approach amplified by Wu’s stylized portraits, which incorporate references to each woman’s work (climate scientist…

A collective biography of 20 groundbreaking women in science. Arranged chronologically, the compilation begins with Ellen Swallow Richards, a white geochemist born in 1842, who not only became the first woman to earn a degree in chemistry in the U.S., but used her research in nutrition, sanitation, and health to establish the first school-lunch program and first water-quality standards in the country. A few women who follow, such as Sylvia Earle, may be recognizable, but most will be new to readers. Each profile starts with an anecdote that describes the scientist’s childhood influences in…

“An inspiring look at women who realized curiosity plus tenacity equals success.” — Kirkus Reviews “[A] captivating compendium.”