Beakman's Book of Dead Guys and Gals in Science

by Luann Colombo, Peter Georgeson (Illustrator)

The host of the popular television science series highlights the lives of fourteen significant scientists from history, with timelines, biographical profiles, and a study of the achievements of Marie Curie, Galileo, Alexander Graham Bell, and others.

Genres: Science

63 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

Reviews

["Teary Eyes" Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of biographies, fast facts and silly observations about famous scientist's lives. Each scientist has a two page biography/time line (except for Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, which share the same page). The book begins with a introduction as to what makes these scientists stand out, and builds up to the idea that the chronological order of how the scientist help to build on each others work up until the television. A silly quote by Liza tells the reader "let's go wake up the dead and see why they're so famous now" (page 7). After each bio/time line, there is then a two page description of what they did and how they did it. Each biography starts with a photograph of one of the "Beakman's World" actors dressed as one of the famous scientists, (a image from a television episode). There is a short information paragraph that tells; the day they were born, when they died, and why they were famous. A time line of silly observations such as "No more star gazing for old Galileo," (page 13) on the year of his death. There are illustrations that help to explain the process of the research/experiment the scientist did, as well as other photographs of the cast in their usual television show costumes, usually with a silly or factual remark presented in a speech balloon. Fittingly the last invention that is covered in the book is the television. The illustrations of a virus attacking a cell (page 30), were also featured in the book/kit "Build With Beakman: Bacteria Farm" (page 5), however they appear to be redrawn. Unlike many of the other books in this series, it does give credit to the actors who portray the characters. This book they also included both Josie from the first season, and Liza from the second season, although they didn't appear on the show together.

Books in the 'Beakman' series.
--'You Can With Beakman & Jax' books;
* You Can with Beakman: Science Stuff You Can Do. ISBN: 0836270045 (June 1, 1992)
** El Mundo De Beakman: Experimentos Divertidos. {Spanish language edition} ISBN: 9706433856 (January 1, 2001).
* You Can with Beakman & Jax: More Science Stuff You Can Do. ISBN: 0836270088 (June 1, 1994)
** El Mundo De Beakman y Jax: Experimentos Divertidos. {Beakman & Jax} ISBN: 9706434151 (May 1, 2002)
* You Can With Beakman & Jax: Way More Science Stuff. ISBN: 0836270436 (June 1, 1995)
** El Mundo De Beakman y Jax: Mas Experimentos Divertidos. {Beakman & Jax} ISBN: 9706434666 (May 1, 2002)
* Beakman and Jax's Microscope Book. ISBN: 0836270215 (December 1, 1995)
* The Best of You Can With Beakman & Jax: A Collection of the Grossest, Weirdest, Coolest Experiments You Can Do. ISBN: 0836236661 (October 1, 1997)
* Beakman & Jax's Bubble Book: Plus Everything You Need to Make a Real Square Bubbles! ISBN: 0836227069 (September 1, 1997)
* The Best of You Can With Beakman and Jax: Over 100 of the Grossest, Weirdest, Coolest, Experiments You Can Do. ISBN: 0887248004 (September 20, 2005) {A reprint of the earlier 'Best of' book with new Acknowledgments/Greetings information.}

--'Beakman's World: Build With Beakman" books;
* Bacteria Farm 0836270134 (November 1, 1994)
* Electronic Intercom 0836270126 (November 1, 1994)
* Hovercraft 0836270401 (June 1, 1995)
* Spud Watch 0836270428 (June 1, 1995)

--Other Beakman's World books;
* Beakman's World: A Visit to the Hit TV Show. ISBN: 0836270053 (September 1, 1993)
* Beakman's Book of Dead Guys and Gals in Science. ISBN: 0836270142 (November 1, 1994)
* Beakman's Gear Up Your Gray Matter. ISBN: 0836270150 (November 1, 1994)
* Beakman's Gear Up Your Gray Matter: Volume II. ISBN: 0836270398 (July 1, 1996)

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 54158 EN Nonfiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 5.4 - AR Pts: 2.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP