Reviews
A week with the eccentric grandmother who has zero social skills, zero interests, and whose life is a mystery: 'the most dreadful week in the world.' Gertrude Kiel's The Time for Reading the Stars is a young adult science novel strongly recommended by my favorite physicist, Professor Kim Sang-wook. I was swept along by the science stories the grandmother tells, then suddenly encountered geometry, Sumerians, and Copernicus, which sent me flipping back through the pages, full of questions. It is
During the summer before third grade, William has to spend a week at his great-aunt's. She is his only relative, always grumpy and irritable whenever he sees her, and finds meeting people tiresome. His father is a doctor working far away, and his mother must leave for a week of training, so William has no choice. The house is dark and gloomy, and his room is hardly fit for sleeping; there is nothing he likes about the place. His great-aunt does not care for him warmly and is even indifferent.
๐ The Time for Reading the Stars, Gertrude Kiel, translated by Kim Wan-gyun, Biryongso, Ten Great Scientists Tell Seven Stories of the Universe, 2024-04-25, book provided for review. Because his mother is away, William spends a week with his only relative, his great-aunt, a strange woman who dislikes children. William is unhappy about the week ahead. In his room he finds The Chronicles of Narnia and decides to search the house for a magic wardrobe. He finds a large, old wardrobe and opens it,
A work recommended by the kind physicist Professor Kim Sang-wook. Perhaps because I thought it was a physics story for children, I was surprised by its thickness when I first received it. But the pages turned quickly, and before long I had read half. Could we really discover that Earth is a tiny lump of cosmic dust, orbiting an enormous, bright ball of fire at tremendous speed in an endlessly expanding universe, amid vast empty space where billions of other solar systems form galaxies with
The title The Time for Reading the Stars and subtitle Ten Great Scientists Tell Seven Stories of the Universe both caught my attention. I wondered what the story would be before I began. I expected anecdotes about scientists, so the different direction surprised me. The story begins with William spending a week of summer vacation at his great-aunt Gunvor's house. Can he get through a week with an aunt he can barely talk to? At first he expects the week to be the most dreadful summer vacation in
I really enjoyed this book, which makes potentially difficult astrophysics approachable through the familiar idea of a grandmother telling stories. I think my child will love reading it when they're a little older. It was fresh and lovely how the vast, unfamiliar world of space was woven into an easy-to-understand story.
Gertrude Kiel: Time to read the stars
A History of Space and Science Told as a Coming-of-Age Story, Time to Read the Stars, has been published by BIR. It tells the history of human science, from heliocentrism to gravity and relativity, through a boy's unusual coming-of-age story. William is sent to spend a week of summer vacation at the home of his eccentric great-aunt and fears he is in for the worst seven days of his life. Alone in the dark, unfamiliar house, he goes looking for something to do and finds a telescope lens in an old box. His great-aunt soon appears and says cryptically, 'You have found something just like a magic wardrobe.' Then, on a midsummer night, she and William begin seven days of scientific conversations as they observe the stars through the telescope lens. What might be inside the magic wardrobe the lens opened? The amazing discoveries of ten great scientists, including Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein, unfold, woven together through conversations between the great-aunt and the boy. Like bedtime stories, she gently tells him about the astronomers who read the movements of the stars. The book covers history, including the invention of writing and numbers, the Renaissance, and the Age of Exploration, as well as science, including heliocentrism, the development of the telescope, and the speed of light. There is no need to worry that it will be difficult. As physicist Sang-wook Kim recommends, even the most challenging science is easier to tackle when a grandmother explains it. This is a must-read not only for young people who have been afraid of science, but also for adults who want an introduction to space and science.
Korean title: ๋ณ์ ์ฝ๋ ์๊ฐ
Korean author: ๊ฒ๋ฅดํธ๋ฃจ๋ฐ ํฌ
Korean publisher: ๋น๋ฃก์
ISBN-13: 9788949187372
Reviews
A week with the eccentric grandmother who has zero social skills, zero interests, and whose life is a mystery: 'the most dreadful week in the world.' Gertrude Kiel's The Time for Reading the Stars is a young adult science novel strongly recommended by my favorite physicist, Professor Kim Sang-wook. I was swept along by the science stories the grandmother tells, then suddenly encountered geometry, Sumerians, and Copernicus, which sent me flipping back through the pages, full of questions. It is
During the summer before third grade, William has to spend a week at his great-aunt's. She is his only relative, always grumpy and irritable whenever he sees her, and finds meeting people tiresome. His father is a doctor working far away, and his mother must leave for a week of training, so William has no choice. The house is dark and gloomy, and his room is hardly fit for sleeping; there is nothing he likes about the place. His great-aunt does not care for him warmly and is even indifferent.
๐ The Time for Reading the Stars, Gertrude Kiel, translated by Kim Wan-gyun, Biryongso, Ten Great Scientists Tell Seven Stories of the Universe, 2024-04-25, book provided for review. Because his mother is away, William spends a week with his only relative, his great-aunt, a strange woman who dislikes children. William is unhappy about the week ahead. In his room he finds The Chronicles of Narnia and decides to search the house for a magic wardrobe. He finds a large, old wardrobe and opens it,
A work recommended by the kind physicist Professor Kim Sang-wook. Perhaps because I thought it was a physics story for children, I was surprised by its thickness when I first received it. But the pages turned quickly, and before long I had read half. Could we really discover that Earth is a tiny lump of cosmic dust, orbiting an enormous, bright ball of fire at tremendous speed in an endlessly expanding universe, amid vast empty space where billions of other solar systems form galaxies with
The title The Time for Reading the Stars and subtitle Ten Great Scientists Tell Seven Stories of the Universe both caught my attention. I wondered what the story would be before I began. I expected anecdotes about scientists, so the different direction surprised me. The story begins with William spending a week of summer vacation at his great-aunt Gunvor's house. Can he get through a week with an aunt he can barely talk to? At first he expects the week to be the most dreadful summer vacation in
I really enjoyed this book, which makes potentially difficult astrophysics approachable through the familiar idea of a grandmother telling stories. I think my child will love reading it when they're a little older. It was fresh and lovely how the vast, unfamiliar world of space was woven into an easy-to-understand story.
