Regular marked price: $16.00Discount Price: $12.00
Cost Savings: $4.00 (25%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 530.092
EAN num: 9780618492985
ISBN number: 0618492984
Label: Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 32
Printing Date: September 27, 2004
Publishing house: Houghton Mifflin
Age index: Ages 4-8
Sale Popularity Level: 81206
Studio: Houghton Mifflin
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
When he was born in 1879, Albert was a peculiarly fat baby with an unusually big and misshaped head. When he was older, he hit his sister, frustrated his teachers, and had few friends. But Albert's strange childhood also included his brilliant capacity for puzzles and problem solving: the mystery of a compass's swirling needle, the intricacies of Mozart's music, the secrets of geometry—set his mind spinning with ideas. In fact, Albert Einstein's ideas were destined to change the way we know and understand the world and our place in the universe. In spare, precise text filled with graceful detail and accompanied by sometimes humorous, sometimes lonely portraits, Don Brown introduces us to the less than magnificent beginnings of an odd boy out. The result is a tender rendering of the adventures of growing up for one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Some very smart kids just don't fit in the classroom. They learn differently. This book assures those kids that they are not "weird", but just might need to learn lessons differently. Unfortunately, most state educational programs do NOT address these needs.
Hopefully, these different-learning kids will learn to accept themselves rather than to succumb to any titles that may be assigned to them, ie, slow learner.
Rated by buyers 
-
If every adult biographer has his or her own personal style, why should the case be any different for children's book biographers? And when it comes to picture book biographies, certain names come to mind. David Adler, of course, though his books are so uncommonly dull that I tend to pity the children I hand them to (being a children's librarian and all). Peter Sis, though his bios require a great deal of time and patience to parse. James Rumford to some extent, though "Sequoyah" is probably his best bio to date. No, when it comes down to it Don Brown is the picture book biographer that nine of ten kids prefer every time. I don't have any actual statistics to back that statement up, I just say what I see. And what I see is an author who is able to take unknown heroes (Mary Kingsley, Alice Ramsey, Ruth Law, etc.) and too well-known heroes (Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, etc.) and give them interesting picture book biographies that kids will both relate to and love.
We all know some basic facts about Einstein. He was a guy with a head of white unruly hair. When you yell, "Hey, Einstein!", you are making reference to the fact that he was once a genius. So how much do you know about this great man as a child? In this book, Brown introduces us to Albert from day one (March 14, 1879, to be exact). As a boy, Albert has his good moods and he has his bad moods. In a good mood he can create a house of cards fourteen stories high and ponder the mysteries of a compass for fun. In a bad mood he is prone to hitting his little sister, terrifying his tutor, and getting so upset that his nose turns white. As we watch, Albert is given an amazing amount of freedom. He wanders the Munich streets alone at the age of four. He discovers geometry with the help of a friendly medical student. The book progresses and we learn a little about Albert's personality from offhand comments. "Soldiers on parade excite the boys. They disturb Albert". At end of this journey, Albert comes up with theory of relativity and, "For the world, Einstein comes to mean not fat baby, or angry child, or odd boy, but great thinker". And now our children can understand where all genius has its beginnings. In the ordinary and familiar.
What I enjoyed about the book was that Brown doesn't linger on just the good things in Einstein's life. No child's a saint, and Albert is no exception. Brown humanizes this latter-day god, giving him a family, a childhood, and a history that kids yesterday (in spite of their love of computerization and high-tech toys) will understand. Who amongst us doesn't recognize Albert's reluctance to engage in organized sports as something we, or someone we know, have also felt? The story is laid out beautifully. The illustrations are little more haphazard. Granted, I really liked the picture of Albert engaged in a temper tantrum. His little fists are clenched and his nose, true to the text, is a slightly whitish color. By and large these pen and ink pictures colored in with watercolors work well. There's just the occasional oddity. When teachers wonder if Albert is dull-witted, Brown illustrates a disturbingly glazed-eyed kid who reinforces their concern. It's a peculiar picture, but there's no denying that it conveys the text well.
I saw Mr. Brown speak not too long ago to a gathering of librarians, and I found that I was not especially impressed with him as a person. Nonetheless, the man does nice work. And of the work that he has done, "Odd Boy Out" is probably one of his best. It's a beautifully rendered story that kids will prefer far above and beyond similar Einstein biographies. Not genius, but pretty darn close.
Rated by buyers -
Odd boy out is a wonderful book with nice illustraions of the life of Albert Einstein.
Albert was born a fat baby with a big head. He had a bad temper
and was condsidered very odd. He didn't like to play sports, and he was disturbed with the things other boys liked. Einstein grows and soon becomes what we know as the famous scientist Einstein.
Find other books like this one:
