Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain

Growing up during the French Revolution, mathematician Sophie Germain found in her study of mathematics the clarity and order missing in the outside world. Bardoe details Germain’s shrewd determination—how she acquired notes from university courses and mailed in homework under a male name. When she becomes the first woman to receive a grand prize from the Royal Academy of Sciences, she gains notoriety as a mathematician. McClintock’s scenes of 18th-century France are infused with a golden glow; numbers loom along city streets and burst from Germain’s quill pen. Bardoe concludes this warm biography by emphasizing how later mathematicians built upon Germain’s work “to build the Eiffel Tower in Paris and modern skyscrapers and lengthy bridges all over the world.” Ages 4–8. [em](June) [/em]