The title of the book Remembering Rosalind Franklin: Rosalind Franklin & the Discovery of the Double Helix Structure of DNA says pretty much everything you need to know about this author Tanya Lee Stone and illustrator Gretchen Ellen Powers book. But of course, there is more and I need to write a longer review!
I read this via an online reader copy, though it came out in February of 2024. Which I think is a little appropriate. This scientist is not well known due to the events that happened here, so I think not finding the book but by accident the electric edition is somehow poetic.
Stone tells us this book is not going to have a very happy ending. We learn that Franklin would do much of the work to make DNA understanding possible. She was the second child of a Jewish family in London. She would try and do science during the war. She would go to France to practice, be more respected, and have equal pay to the men in the field. But since she was homesick, she would go back to England and here is when things went sideways. Disrespect, eventually stolen work and then a man who, in the process of trying to discredit her (even saying she didn’t care for her appearance enough to be properly dressed, which was not only rude but untrue as she once showed up in a Coco Chanel outfit) that brought Franklin to the forefront of science again.
The illustrations are nicely done, becoming not just a supporter to things, but having character of their own without taking over the main theme of Franklin’s life. There are good colors, things can be busy (maybe a smidgen too busy sometimes), but overall a delightful addition. Aimed at a slightly older crowd (there is a lot about the actual science done by the different people), the seven to nine year-old might not appreciate the picture book format, but it is worth using in a classroom setting, even for the nine to ten-year-old crowd or reader.