Marie Curie

In her trademark ornamental art style, Demi illustrates the life of Marie Curie, born in 1867 Poland as Maria Salomea Sklodowska . Following a stint as a governess, she pursued an unconventional path for women of her time, graduating from the Sorbonne with degrees in physics and mathematics. Marriage to physicist Pierre Curie and having a child didn’t derail Curie’s systematic research into uranium, which Demi describes in detail. Through thoughtful storytelling and sophisticated art, Demi explores the implications, positive and negative, behind Curie’s discovery of polonium and radium. The doll-like figures don’t bring much emotion to the story’s more upsetting moments—Pierre’s death in a traffic accident, the poisoning of factory workers who “painted their teeth and fingernails” with glowing radium paint during the craze that followed the discovery of the element—but Demi brings a distinctive voice to the story of this extraordinary scientist. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)