Hawking

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Today I have a graphic novel about Stephen Hawking for you. Hawking, was a wonderful man of science. Thinking through his ideas, and applying math to help prove his theory, Hawking lived a full life despite a diagnosis of ALS.

From The Cover

Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick deliver a gripping biography of Stephen Hawking, one of the most important scientists of our time.

From his early days at the St Albans School and Oxford, Stephen Hawking’s brilliance and good humor were obvious to everyone he met. A lively and popular young man, it’s no surprise that he would later rise to celebrity status.

In Hawking, writer Jim Ottaviani and artist Leland Myrick have crafted an intricate portrait of the great thinker, the public figure, and the man behind both identities.

What you Get

I will freely admit I didn’t read all of Hawking. I’m not a big graphic novel fan, and this book is mostly done in black and white images, and my eyes get tired after a while. 🙂 I did read solid sections and this is a really nice story of Hawking, done in graphic novel style.

You get the story of his life from the time he was born through to adulthood. The first few pages were in full colour, which I presume will be the full book when you purchase it. Aren’t the colours nice?

The print is neat, easy to read, small and not grainy. I did find in my ARC copy that some of the print had fading. Some letters would be dark, and others would be faded. It seemed a bit odd. My assumption again, is due to the ARC copy that I received.

What did I learn? Hawking was one smart man who really knew his math and how to put it together with the ideas he was postulating. I kept reading about how math was a part of how he put all his ideas together. New ideas, possibly great ideas, take careful working through of the math.

Hawking lived a very full life. ALS seemed to slow him down, but as he said “I’m a slow thinker”. So it put a crimp in his life, but it didn’t stop him from being the man that he was. Seeing him work through that was very interesting, and for that alone, definitely a book I would recommend you let your middle schoolers and up read.

Hawking.
Jim Ottaviani
Leland Myrick (illustrator)
First Second
Trade paperback, 304 pages, middle school
Biography, Science, Hawking
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.