Leslie Dendy

"Guinea Pig Scientists," features notable physicians, scientists, and citizens who bravely experimented on themselves or put themselves in grave danger in the name of science. For example, one of the stories feature Marie and Pierre Curie and their famous work with radioactivity. The stories are well supported by extensive appendices of bibliographical and quotation resources, and each author has the appropriate background to contribute to the work - Dr. Dendy teaches biology and chemistry in University of New Mexico, Los Alamos, and Mr. Boring has taught in the K-12 setting, editor of a children's website, and author of several nonfiction picture books. The content provides rich, vivid details about the risks and rewards the self-experimenters experienced, yet there were several technical details that could have benefitted from demonstrative or explanatory visuals such as how the human body regulates temperature and how George Fordyce and Charles Blagden experimented the response of their own bodies to temperatures up to 260 degrees in dry air. The facts offered are quite interesting to someone with previous knowledge of physics and chemistry, but the style can be found too wordy especially for elementary school readers. The authentic old photos of the Curies were useful in demonstrating the deleterious effects of working with radioactive material, yet the illustrations were more decorative rather than explanatory. This book is recommended for students as early as 10 years old, but would seem to be more appropriate for 11-12 years old.… (mais)