All In A Drop by Lori Alexander

Antony van Leeuwenhoek lives in the town of Delft, Netherlands. It is a place of tree-lined canals and busy merchants. Antony lives at a time which comes to be known as the Golden Age for the Netherlands. The Dutch own the largest fleet of ships  in the world and travel to many countries bringing in many goods from Africa, North America and Asia.

Antony's family are tradesmen: his grandfather was a beer brewer and his father makes wicker baskets used to transport fragile goods on the ships.

Antony's father dies when is he is quite young. With his mother's remarriage, he is sent, at the age of only eight to a boarding school outside of Delft.

At the age of fourteen, his schooling now finished, Antony moves to Benthuizen to live with his uncle. He sends Antony to Amsterdam to train in a linen's merchant's shop. In Amsterdam, Antony meets people from different countries and cultures.

For six years, Antony works as an apprentice to a linen merchant. Finally ready to start his own business, he moves back to Delft in 1654. He is only twenty-two years old and is now a draper, a person who sells cloth.

To check the quality of the cloth he sells, Antony uses a magnifying glass that helps him to see the number of threads in a swatch of cloth.

In 1668, a trip to London, England for vacation changes the course of Antony's life. While in London, he learns about the work of Robert Hooke, an English scientist who uses a microscope to view objects very closely. Hooke has written a book called Micrographia about what he's seen through his microscope. Although Antony cannot read Hooke's book because it's written in English, the pictures intrigue him.

When Antony returns home to the Netherlands, he decides to build his own microscope. This microscope is different from Hooke's. It has a pea-size lens held between two small brass rectangles and a screw mount to hold a specimen. His first subject is a bit of moldy bread. But what Antony sees is more detailed than the picture in Robert Hooke's Micrographia.

After viewing many different specimens through his microscopes, (each specimen is mounted on its own microscope), Antony decides to show his work to a friend, Reinier de Graaf, a scientist who encourages him to share his findings with the Royal Society in London. At first scientists are skeptical because Antony is unknown to them but they find his observations interesting and they request that he write them each time makes a new observation.

This is thrilling for Antony and he begins his work in earnest, hiring a local artist to draw what he sees in each of his microscopes. But Antony's most famous discovery is yet to come. It is one that one hundred years after his death would lead scientists to make important discoveries about disease.

Discussion

All In A Drop chronicles the important work of Antony van Leeuwenhoek, now considered the Father of Microbiology. Written in third person, Alexander brings to life Antony's efforts to learn about the hidden world that surrounds all of us. His work with what was a relatively new instrument called the microscope demonstrated that an  invisible and unknown world hidden from human eyes existed. This  microscopic was difficult for scientists living in Antony's era to fully comprehend.

 In the chapter, The Father of Microbiology, Alexander considers how Antony's discovery of hidden organisms was to eventually play an important role in medicine. Unfortunately, few scientists in Antony's time, including Antony himself failed to recognize just how important this hidden world of microbes was to the health of mankind. It would be one hundred years before the connection between microbes and disease would be made, allowing doctors to save millions of lives. This delay Alexander believes was likely partly the fault of Antony who worked alone, had no rigorous scientific training, and kept his methods a secret. He never passed on his knowledge through lectures or teaching, although his letters were published in the oldest scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions. Nevertheless, as Alexander writes, "...the work Antony did with microscopes forever changed the way we see the world around us."

Alexander's third person narrative is straightforward, easy to follow and enhanced by the illustrations of Vivien Mildenberger which were rendered in pastels, watercolours and coloured pencil. Included are relevant photographs, a Timeline of Events, a Glossary, an Author's Note which explains the importance of Antony van Leeuwenhoek's work, Source Notes and a Selected Bibliography for further reading. This short chapter book is also indexed. A great introduction to microbiology for young readers.


Book Details:

All In A Drop: How Antony van Leeuwenhoek Discovered an Invisible World by Lori Alexander
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company    2019
93 pp.


Image credit: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonie-van-Leeuwenhoek/images-videos#/media/1/334699/12567

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis by Jo Ellen Bogart

Not many Canadians have heard of  Maritime folk artist Maud Lewis. Maud was born in 1903 in the town of Yarmouth, in Nova Scotia to John and Agnes Dowley. She was born with several disabilities including misshapen hands, hunched shoulders and a very small chin. She was also very petite. Uncomfortable around others because of her physical differences, Maud was a loner. She was often teased at school and eventually dropped out at aged fourteen. Despite this Maud had a happy family life with her parents and her brother and was known for her sweet disposition and lovely smile. To help her, Maud's mother had her paint Christmas cards to sell to their neighbours. She learned to play the piano but eventually her arthritis became too painful.

Life changed drastically for Maud after her father's death in 1935 and her mother's death in 1937. Around the time of her parents deaths, Maud had a child, a baby girl who was put up for adoption.

Maud lived with her brother who inherited the family home and then moved in with an aunt in Digby, Nova Scotia. It was in Digby that she met her husband Everett Lewis, a fish peddler. Maud and Everett married in 1938. They lived in a small house in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. Their little house which lacked basic amenities such as electricity and indoor plumbing, would be Maud's home for over thirty years. Despite their very different personalities, Maud and Everett seemed to get along very well. Everett encouraged Maud in her painting but because they were so poor, Maud used any materials she had at hand, including board, cardboard and even household items such as baking trays and dustpans. Maud's worsening rheumatoid arthritis meant she wasn't able to do housework so Everett cleaned house while Maud painted and supported them through the sale of her art.

Her colourful oil paintings, done in the primitive style often portrayed interesting details of everyday life and became increasingly popular. A simple sign that said "Paintings for Sale" drew in buyers and her reputation grew. As is often the case with artists, Maud's talent was largely unrecognized during her lifetime. That began to change in the 1960's when CBC produced a documentary on her in 1965.

Maud's health began to decline after she fell and broke her hip. Years of exposure to wood smoke and paint fumes added to her health problems. Maud died in 1970 and in 1979, Everett passed away. Their house, filled with Maud's paintings on the walls and other surfaces, began to deteriorate. Eventually the house was given to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax and can be viewed there.

Maud Lewis in her home.

Capturing Joy is aptly named for Maud's painting were both colourful and exuded the joyful moments of life. Author Jo Ellen Bogart includes many interesting details about Maud's life. Accompanying the text are Mark Lang's pencil sketches while each opposite page is a photograph of one of Maud's paintings which are exhibited in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Bogart's picture book is a welcome addition to the literature about Maud Lewis because it helps acquaint younger readers with Canadian art and artists.

The inspiration for the picture book resulted from a visit by Bogart to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia where Maud Lewis's paintings are on exhibition and where her little house permanently resides. Bogart states "I went to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia where there is this magnificent display of Maud Lewis' work and the little house she lived in. The entire house is actually in the gallery. Well, this just made it so real. I stood at the door of that house forever, looking in, imagining Maud's life in a structure the size of one room in today's house. I had known her work and liked it, but it was a very peripheral thing because I was busy with other things. All of a sudden, it was front and centre, and I was confronted with her life and her work. I knew before I left the gallery that day that I wanted to do that book." Bogart noticed that there were no books for children on this Nova Scotia artist so she decided to remedy that.

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis is a beautiful picture book that captures Maud's remarkable talent and tells her story in an appealing way for readers of all ages.

Book Details:

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis by Jo Ellen Bogart
Toronto: Tundra Books       2002

The Man Who Loved Libraries by Andrew Larsen

The Man Who Loved Libraries is about an American philanthropist who built 2,500 libraries all over the world, but mostly in the United States and Canada. Andrew Carnegie, a self-made millionaire was a staunch believer in free libraries and the value of free education. Carnegie built over 2,500 libraries throughout the world; the first one in his hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland. He spent $2,556,600 building one hundred eleven libraries in Ontario Canada and an additional fourteen libraries throughout Canada. The first Carnegie library in the province of Ontario was opened in Chatham on September 14, 1903. Many of these libraries in Ontario are still functioning today and a list with accompanying pictures can be found on the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport website. Ontario received the greater number of Carnegie libraries due to its larger population and the recognition of the importance of libraries in the province. The architectural style of the Carnegie libraries varied from Beaux-Arts to Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival and Spanish Colonial.

Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Dunfermlime, Scotland, the son of a weaver. However, increasing industrialization meant he could no longer support his family with his trade so they emigrated to the United States in 1848. In the United States, Andrew had to work to help support his family. He was a very enterprising young man. Because his formal education had ended, Andrew turned to the personal library of  his employer, Colonel James Anderson to learn. Eventually Andrew worked his way up in the business world and soon became wealthy. In 1901, Carnegie sold his Carnegie Steel Company for the astounding sum of $500,000,000! From this point on, he devoted himself to philanthropy which included not only the building of free libraries but also the support of academic endeavours too. Carnegie was a firm believer of self-improvement through learning.

Larsen's picture book tells Andrew Carnegie's story from when he was growing up in Dunfermline, Scotland to his life in the United States. Readers will learn how libraries played a significant role in Carnegie's life and how he was determined to help others in the way he had been helped.  Carnegie's story is told in a simple, forthright manner. The back of the book contains a two page spread on Andrew Carnegie's Legacy. The Man Who Loved Libraries is illustrated with the colourful artwork of Katty Maurey.


Book Details:

The Man Who Loved Libraries: The Story of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Larson
Toronto: Owlkid Books Inc.       2017