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Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein | 
 enlarge | Author: Don Brown
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.31
You Save: $3.68 (53%)
New (27) Used (6) from $3.31
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 143339
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 32
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 9.7 x 0.4
ISBN: 054701435X
Dewey Decimal Number: 530.092
EAN: 9780547014357
ASIN: 054701435X
Publication Date: June 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: GREAT BUY!Brand New From US Distributor! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3,500,000 BOOKS SOLD!!! OVER ~ 600,000 FEEDBACKS ~ POSTED!!!
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Product Description
When he was born, Albert was a peculiar, fat baby with an unusually big and misshaped head. When he was older, he hit his sister, bothered his teachers, and didn't have many friends. But in the midst of all of this, Albert was fascinated with solving puzzles and fixing scientific problems. The ideas Albert Einstein came up with during his childhood as an odd boy out were destined to change the way we know and understand the world around us . . .
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| Customer Reviews:
 Excellent book for "special kids" September 10, 2008
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.
 Relatively (ha ha) good October 2, 2005
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
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 today (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.
Odd boy out is one great book! November 14, 2004
10 out of 17 found this review helpful
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.
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