The Story Book of Science (Yesterday's Classics) [Paperback]

Jean Henri Fabre (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

The wonders of plant and animal life told with rare literary charm by Uncle Paul in conversations with three children. Besides such stories as the ants' subterranean city, the spider's suspension bridge, and the caterpillars' processing, he unlocks the mystery behind thunder and lightning, clouds and rain, the year and its seasons, and volcanoes and earthquakes. Suitable for ages 9 to 12.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (1823-1915) was a French entomologist and author. Fabre was born in Saint-Léons in Aveyron, France. Fabre was largely an autodidact, owing to the poverty of his family. Nevertheless, he acquired a primary teaching certificate at the young age of 19 and began teaching in Carpentras whilst pursuing further studies. In 1849 he was appointed to a teaching post in Ajaccio (Corsica), then in 1849 moved on to the lycée in Avignon. Fabre went on to accomplish many scholarly achievements. He was a popular teacher, physicist, chemist and botanist. However, he is probably best known for his findings in the field of entomology, the study of insects, and is considered by many to be the father of modern entomology. Much of his enduring popularity is due to his marvelous teaching ability and his manner of writing about the lives of insects in biographical form, which he preferred to a clinically detached, journalistic mode of recording. In doing so he combined what he called "my passion for scientific truth" with keen observations and an engaging, colloquial style of writing. Fabre noted: Others again have reproached me with my style, which has not the solemnity, nay, better, the dryness of the schools. They fear lest a page that is read without fatigue should not always be the expression of the truth. Were I to take their word for it, we are profound only on condition of being obscure. Over the years he wrote a series of texts on insects and arachnids that are collectively known as the Souvenirs Entomologiques. Fabre's influence is felt in the later works of fellow naturalist Charles Darwin, who called Fabre "an inimitable observer". Fabre, however, rejected Darwin's theory of evolution; on the other hand he was not a Biblical creationist either but assumed a saltationist origin of biodiversity. In one of Fabre's most famous experiments, he arranged processionary caterpillars to form a continuous loop around the edge of a pot. As each caterpillar instinctively followed the silken trail of the caterpillars in front of it, the group moved around in a circle for seven days. Jean-Henri Fabre's last home and office, the Harmas de Fabre in Provence stands today as a museum devoted to his life and works. The site of his birth, at St Léons, near Millau is now the site of Micropolis, a tourist attraction dedicated to popularising entomology and a museum on his life. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Yesterday's Classics (May 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599150255
• ISBN-13: 978-1599150253
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #587,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take it slowly, read it aloud, learn and enjoy, June 4, 2009

By 

Polly Castor - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Story Book of Science (Yesterday's Classics) (Paperback)

I read this classic book by Jean Henri-Fabre (France 1823 - 1915) to my homeschooled 6th grader as supplementary science material this year. She gives the book four stars in general, and five stars in the category of "school books." She would often pick it out of the stack over other ongoing things.

Originally published in 1917, this is detailed science writing about nature, done in story form. "Uncle Paul" teaches his niece and nephews about nature with a passion and zeal rarely seen in science books.

The book was slow going, but we were savoring it and were not in a hurry. The chapters are short. It took us the whole school year to finish the 80 "stories" contained in the book. Our pace being leisurely, we enjoyed "Uncle Paul" (as we came to call to this book) and each session we either learned something new, or had our interest in something renewed or expanded. And the author's Godly perspective often left us discussing interesting implications of what we had learned. Because of the discussion possibilities, this book is best as a read aloud, and I believe was originally intended as one.

For example a profound discussion followed this: "There is no difference between queen-eggs and working bee eggs. Its treatment alone decides the issue for the egg. Treated in a certain manner, the young larvae becomes a queen, on whom depends the future prosperity of the hive; treated another way, it becomes one of the working people and is furnished with brushes and baskets. And what does not treatment, or education, accomplish with us in our tender years?"

He relates things in ways that were easy to picture, definitely talking to children but not down to them. For example, he compares the size of the earth to the sun in this way: "If we suppose the sun a hollow spherical box, to fill it would take one million four hundred thousand balls the size of the earth."

We learned that volcanic orifices are safety valves and without them we would have many more disastrous earthquakes. We learned about how the ants milk their own cows (!), how to tell some poisonous mushrooms from others, how pearls are made, how to remove venom from bites, and lots more.

Here is an example of how a conversation of God would work it's way into a topic: "Imagination vainly seeks to picture the stupendous mass of the layer of air wound like a scarf by the creator around the earth. Now do you know what relation it bears to the terrestrial globe - this ocean of air having a weight represented by half a million copper tubes (nine thousand millions of kilograms each) a quarter of a league each way? Scarcely what the imperceptible velvety down of a peach is to the peach itself. What, then, are we materially, we poor things of a day, who move about at the bottom of this atmosphere and the earth itself! In vain does the material universe overwhelm us with its immensity; the mind is superior to it, because it alone knows itself, and it alone, by a sublime privilege, has knowledge of its divine author."

The units of measure in this book are not only foreign but antiquated so involve translation between degrees Celsius, fathoms, decigrams, etc. For example: "The subterranean temperature increases with depth one degree for every thirty meters. It is estimated that three kilometers down the temperature must be that of boiling water at 100 degrees Celcius... five leagues down, that of red-hot iron, and at twelve leagues sufficient to melt anything." We became comfortable with other forms of measurement through this book, as well as relative worth of foreign currency almost 100 years ago.

The vocabulary used was at times difficult, which makes older elementary probably the target age for this book, but the context always made things clear so I think younger children could enjoy it as well. The story form, with the children asking questions and marveling along side Uncle Paul, combined with interesting information make it accessible to a wide range of ages. The science itself struck me as amazingly accurate; who knew that they knew so much so long ago? There was even a discussion about relative motion on trains, which actually didn't have a "theory" until Einstein.

In this book, the author's infectious enthusiasm and animated, genuine interest in nature, as made by God, makes all the work worth it. We are glad to have done it nice and slowly and will long remember the things we got out of it.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Story Book of Science, December 21, 2008

By 

Galileo's Gang "Homeschoolingmom" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Story Book of Science (Yesterday's Classics) (Paperback)

If you love to read to your children, this is a wonderful read-aloud book. My 5 children are between the ages of 3-11 and all of them love this book. The short chapters are wonderfully written and the information is mind opening. The have learned so much--from ants to metals to electricity to paper. And--they retain the information! We plan on rereading it after we finish it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Conceptually great, August 17, 2009

By 

Bethany J. Glozier "Homemaker" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Story Book of Science (Yesterday's Classics) (Paperback)

Conceptually I love this book but it was way too wordy and indepth for my 3 & 5 year olds, we will try it again in a few years!