Review by Booklist Review
This relatable story of a little girl who "fell in love with pond scum" serves as an accessible introduction to the wonders found in a drop of water in Winterbottom's beautifully illustrated science biography. Readers will easily see how a love of science can turn into a career as they follow Ruth Patrick from splashing around rivers and trudging muddy shorelines on to college and then discovering and putting into use the Patrick Principle, that an environment's health can be measured by its biodiversity. Readers will enjoy Patrick's tenacity as she horrifies her tidy mother by bringing home overflowing, muddy buckets and applaud her father's delight at his daughter's curiosity about the natural world. Though the font is quite small, Reagan's detailed, full-spread multimedia illustrations burst with details of shoreline and underwater flora and fauna (the closeups of startled-looking fish are a highlight), and some pages offer labeled images of creatures Patrick would have found in her rural Pennsylvania outings. A must for science and biography shelves.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Winterbottom spotlights oft-overlooked aquatic ecologist Ruth Patrick (1907--2013) in this eye-opening book, which considers the origins of Patrick's scientific work and lauds her pivotal role in the study of biodiversity as a gauge of ecosystem health. An unlikely opening line immediately captures attention: "When Ruth Patrick was five years old, she fell in love with pond scum." Narration goes on to describe how the protagonist's early and enduring fascination with microscopic algae leads her to graduate school studies, of "her true love, diatoms" and of water pollution--its lively style making her collection of data feel like a page-turning event. Reagan's hand-painted watercolor washes mix with digital detailing for absorbing effect: lightly sketched scenes of the figure ankle-deep in water appear alongside delicately starry diatoms and careful depictions of aquatic creatures poised to one day benefit from the scientist's trailblazing work. More about the figure and a timeline conclude. Ages 6--9. (Mar.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
"When Ruth Patrick was five years old, she fell in love with pond scum." Patrick (1907-2013) spent her childhood exploring the natural world around her Kansas City, Missouri, home. Looking through her father's microscope, she was especially entranced by diatoms, "microscopic algae that live in every body of water on Earth...Without them, we would not be here." She attended a women's college, studying biology, and earned a PhD in botany from the University of Virginia. While working at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, she led a team doing fieldwork on water pollution in streams and rivers throughout Pennsylvania: "No one had ever studied everything in a river before. It would be a huge job." Along with mentoring other scientists, her lasting legacies include a clearer understanding of what's now known as biodiversity and her tireless work on clean-water legislation. The point that this happened at a time when relatively few women were encouraged to be in the sciences is neither overlooked nor hammered home (a concluding author's note provides more detail). The text is clear, with a storytelling flow that builds upon previous details, and the textured digital and hand-painted illustrations are naturalistic and approachable. A timeline, source notes, and a selected bibliography are also appended. Elissa GershowitzMay/June 2025 p.121 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The true story of a girl whose love for pond scum saved America's waterways. At age 5, Ruth Patrick took her first look at pond scum in her father's microscope. The shimmering, gliding, gemlike creatures she saw were diatoms: microscopic algae that would determine the course of Ruth's life. Though it wasn't considered proper in 1913 for a girl to tromp through muddy streams, Ruth's father nurtured her interests, encouraging her to "leave the world a better place than you found it." Working for the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia after graduate school, Ruth aimed to measure the effects of pollution on rivers, a topic that hadn't yet been investigated. She spent a summer collecting samples and identifying species, concluding that the key to understanding a stream's health wasbiodiversity (a term that had not yet been coined). Ruth devoted her later years to organizing community action against pollution, helping to draft laws to safeguard waterways, and educating generations of young scientists. The text flows naturally from scientific terminology to lyrical storytelling, making this an excellent choice for a classroom read-aloud. Ethereal, hand-painted watercolor wash illustrations are enhanced by delicate digital ink lines. Blue, green, and brown hues evoke the murky streams, while intricate line overlays highlight the crystalline details of microscopic diatoms. Budding naturalists will eagerly dip their toes into this one. (more information about Ruth Patrick, quote sources, timeline, selected bibliography)(Picture-book biography. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
