Snowflake Bentley

Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Copyright: 1998
Genre: Biography
Pages: 32
Reading Level: Ages 5 to 8 (Barnes and Noble)
Summary: Willie (Snowflake) Bentley was born in Vermont in 1865. He was raised on a farm but had a real love for things of nature--particularly snow. When he was young he would show people the butterflies he caught or the apple blossoms from the trees but he couldn't show them snowflakes because he couldn't save them. He got a microscope for Christmas one year and started trying to draw the snowflakes but they would always melt before he could finish. He did a lot of research on snow and was the one who discovered that snowflakes typically have six branches (some have three but it's not too common) and that they are all different in their shape and design. Eventually his parents got him a very nice, very expensive camera that could magnify and after experimenting with it for a long time he finally figured out a way to get a good quality picture of a magnified snowflake. He continued to study snow and took hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of snowflakes and other things in nature. He never became rich but he loved what he did and left a legacy. He died less than a month after publishing his book of pictures he had taken. He had walked six miles in a blizzard and caught pneumonia and died two weeks later. Now there is a museum in his home village in honor of him and his work.
Who would you recommend this book to? I would recommend this to any children. It would be really fun for children who are learning about snow or for kids who live in a place that has snowy winters.
Potential problems or conflicts: I don't see any potential problems or conflicts with this book.
My reaction: I liked this book. It was not a super exciting plot but it was really interesting to learn about how he worked and his fascination with the snow. It was cool to learn why we now have so much information and knowledge about snow and snowflakes and their unique designs.