Title: Who Was Nikola Tesla
Author: Jim Gigliotti
Book Review by Dylan Fedell
Who Was Nikola Tesla?, a biography, written by Jim Gigliotti and illustrated by John Hinderliter, is the latest title in a collection of over 200 works in the #1 New York Times Best-Selling Series, Who Was?. Gigliotti has written other books for this series and has written over 100 other nonfiction works. This book asks a question that both children and adults may not know the answer to and poses the father of modern electricity’s struggles and successes in a relevant way for younger readers. Although this book is intended for audiences 8-12 years old I found the structure and level of sophistication of the text appropriate for these ages and beyond. This work, as many in the series, contains over 100 pages (107 to be exact) and approximately 80 illustrations.
The cover of this book and most books in the Who Was? series was drawn by Nancy Harrison. These books are easily recognized by a caricature of the person(s) in the biography and a background image of an important moment in their lives and convey the setting of the story. On the cover of this book, there is metallic lightning streaks, representing Tesla’s experiments with electricity, across a flat colored finish which helps spark the reader’s interest, set the scene, and is pleasing to the eye. The consistency in cover art across the series makes each book collectible to young readers who may just have to collect them all! All books in the series are paperback and are sized well for the young reader to hold and transport.
The text is an easy to read font and is sized appropriately for the age group the author and publisher intended. The text is high contrast, black type on bright white paper which makes it easy to see. Although this book can be read individually, it is easily read aloud in front of a group due to the contrast of the text against the page, the size of the font, the cadence of the author’s voice, and phonetic descriptions of words to ensure proper pronunciation of names and places in the story. The illustrations fit so nicely into the layout of the text that they seem to appear as soon as you need a visual.
Tesla was one of our greatest minds in history. It was he, not Thomas Edison, who made electricity accessible to every American; who had visions and held patents to make wireless communication possible; who gave up wealth in search of knowledge and making a better world using electricity. Gigliotti was surely provided an extraordinary list of accomplishments to write this book but was skillful in his placement and creation of meaningful moments in Tesla’s life that lead to these accomplishments. The placement of these vignettes made it easy for the reader to segue into how or why Tesla would react to occurrences later in his life. The author discusses a variety of topics that are often difficult for the intended audience to cope with personally, such as work ethic, failure and success, sickness and getting well, moving, bullying, community, and family. He succeeds in making these topics accessible and relevant to the intended reader by balancing them with how Tesla endured each hardship. The author also utilizes sidebars used to explain places, people, or concepts mentioned in the book that helps maintain the reader’s investment in the story.
While researching Tesla’s life and numerous biographies, the amount of information covered outside of this book is staggering. There are numerous higher-level biographies on Nikola Tesla, including his own, but no other youth works. In an online search, those interested may find science lessons and articles targeting youth, but no books. Yet, even though Nikola Tesla’s accomplishments and inventions can be laid out over a few pages in a wiki or hundreds of pages in an adult book, the amount of information presented in this book allows young readers to make meaning of his life – not just to memorize untethered facts about it.
All books in this series come in a somewhat limited format – typically paperback – and the e-book can be downloaded from various sources including Amazon (Kindle), Google, and Barnes & Noble to name a few. The Kindle version does a great job at maintaining the placement and subsequent usefulness of the illustrations relative to the text. The most exciting aspect of this series is that there is a Netflix Original: Who Was? Series that highlights two characters in history during each show based on the books. At the time of this review, there was only 1 season, and Nikola Tesla was not highlighted so a comparison between book and show could not be made.
Overall, this book sends a positive message to the youth reader. The storyline created by the author is inspiring and accurately portrays Tesla’s impact, intelligence, character, and work ethic. The story represents events that would happen in a family and a community and does not perpetuate stereotypes of any cultural group. Each book in the Who Was? series has its own flavor and is rather straightforward in its delivery of information and this book is no exception. The informational nature of this book is a solid foundation for any youth interested in learning more about this amazing character in our world’s history.
The Children's Literature Forum 