From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4?A brief, easy-to-read biography of the young man who, in 1930, discovered the planet Pluto. Wetterer tells the story of Tombaugh's childhood on an Illinois farm, his introduction to a telescope at age 12, and his determination to study astronomy despite his family's poverty. He built powerful telescopes and made many drawings of what he saw. In 1929, those drawings landed him a job at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. There, after many months of painstaking work and study, "he found a whole new world. He found Planet X, hidden among the stars." This interesting story is simply and directly told. Excellent-quality watercolor paintings appear throughout. The illustration of Clyde taking pictures of exactly the same piece of sky over and over and comparing them is helpful to young readers' scientific understanding of what it means to be an astronomer. An artistic rendering of the photos that Clyde was studying show the incredibly small detail that proved the existence of a ninth planet.?Anne Parker, Milton Public Library, MA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 2^-5. Young Clyde Tombaugh, growing up on a midwestern farm in the early 1900s, built his own telescope to observe the skies and dreamed of going to college to study astronomy but could not afford it. Eventually, he went to work at the Lowell Observatory, photographing the sky in the region where astronomers suspected the existence of a ninth planet. Comparing photos in 1930, he found a "wandering star," which proved to be the planet Pluto. From the On My Own Biographies series, which highlights significant events in narratives without fictionalization, this account of Tombaugh shows respect for the man, his major accomplishment, and the reader. Although the format, as well as the size and spacing of the type, suggests a beginning reader, the scientific content, the straightforward writing style, and the intriguing story will interest older children studying the solar system. With restrained line-and-watercolor-wash artwork on every page, this will be an attractive addition to astronomy collections. Carolyn Phelan
