Marie Curie: A Life of Discovery

Product Description

In her intensely researched, inventively drawn exploration of Marie Curie’s life, artist Alice Milani follows the celebrated Polish scientist from Curie’s time as a struggling governess to her years in France making breakthrough discoveries. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. With skill and care, Milani traces Curie’s flight from Russia-controlled Poland, her romance with fellow scientist Pierre Curie, and Marie and Pierre’s stunning discoveries of the elements radium and polonium. Throughout this distinctive graphic work, Curie defies doubt and double standards to make an enduring impact on the scientific world.

Review

“This graphic format biography of Marie Curie, the first woman Nobelist, is told in a series of flashbacks from the point of view of one of her daughters. In 1889, Curie was working as a governess in Poland, well educated but with few options beyond marriage and frustrated with her circumstances. An invitation from her sister and brother-in-law in Paris opened up opportunities to study math and physics at the Sorbonne, where she met her future husband, Pierre Curie. Large panels filled with vivid washes of watercolor and colored pencil set the tone and mood, depicting scenes in her laboratory as well as at home and around Paris. Glimpses of Curie’s thoughts, discussions with other scientists, and even the occasional diagram provide depth and scientific authenticity, conveying Curie’s brilliance and why her work with radioactive materials was so important. More subtly, the author shows over time how the radioactivity affected Curie physiologically, eventually leading to her death. The story swings between her professional and personal life, including the despair she felt after her husband’s death and a subsequent affair with a fellow scientist who was married. VERDICT With a complex story structure and sophisticated science content, this addition to the canon about Curie is ideal for upper middle and high schoolers.”―School Library Journal

“In Milani’s graphic biography of the iconic Marie Curie, soon-to-be Nobel winner Ernest Rutherford explains the theory of transmutation in less than a dozen panels to Marie Curie’s ‘interested in science’ daughter, Irène―so young, she calls it ‘tramputation.’ That transparent accessibility repeats throughout, underscoring Milani’s remarkable ability to present complex scientific concepts to layreaders with logic and clarity. When Milani isn’t explaining in the text―fluidly translated from the original Italian by Schwandt―she relies on atmospheric, pencil-and-watercolor art to augment the narrative of Curie’s brilliant life. From Polish governess to University of Paris (Sorbonne) graduate in physics and mathematics to unparalleled scientist and double Nobel Prizewinner (the first woman in 1903; becoming the only Nobelist in two different sciences in 1911), Curie’s tenacity resulted in both worldwide achievement and personal derision, especially as a woman pioneer in a male-controlled field. (Her ‘tramputation’-curious daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, won her own Nobel in 1935.) Additional endmatter―a detailed contextual essay co-written by Milani’s scientist parents, as well as a bibliography and source notes―enhance Milani’s biography, marking it for potential classroom inclusion.”―Booklist

“Italian creator Milani (cocontributor, Post Pink) offers her first English-language translation with this biography of French Polish physicist Marie Curie (1867–1934), tracing the Nobel Prize winner’s life using several themes: her scientific exploration, the sexism she faced, and her Polish identity. Central to the narrative is Curie’s partnership with husband and colleague Pierre Curie, as is the scandal some years after his death, when Curie became involved with a married colleague. Yet Milani most successfully conveys the professional achievements and impassioned life of an extra