Title: Snowflake Bentley
Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrator: Marian Azarian
Format: Picture Book
Age group: 4+
Winter this year started with a whimper, but seems to be determined to go out with a bang. Falling temperatures, snowstorms and snow days in March…I, for one, am ready for spring to get here quick.
But, I imagine there was one boy who loved long-tapered winters and waited for the return of snow each year. This is his story.
If we can state with confidence today that no two snowflakes are alike, it is because of the persistence of Wilson Bentley, who was the first to come to that conclusion after his extensive study of snow crystals.
Wilson Bentley, or “Snowflake” Bentley as he affectionately came to be called, was born in a rural farming town of Jericho, Vermont in 1865. From the time he was little, he delighted in nature. After he received a microscope one birthday, he became particularly fascinated by snowflakes and determined to capture images of individual snowflakes on camera. He spent hours at a time standing out in the snow and experimented for years with attaching his microscope to his camera to pursue his unusual hobby. The son of a farmer, he was largely self-taught and misunderstood by people of the day. But in 1885, he became the first person to successfully photograph a snowflake and went on to being recognized as a pioneer in the art and science of photomicrography. Bentley spent the next 40+ years of his life perfecting his technique and photographing nearly 5000 individual snowflakes.
I love this story and have enjoyed introducing it to my children. I like to imagine Bentley awaiting the return of winter each year, anticipating a beauty beyond that which a normal eye could possibly imagine or see.
Jacqueline Briggs Martins’ wonderful picture book for kids is a tribute to Bentley’s unorthodox exploration and love of science and nature. Illustrator Mary Azarian depicts the story with beautiful, hand-painted woodcuts that evoke a simpler time.
I often gift Snowflake Bentley together with a copy of Snowflakes in Photographs, which is a compilation of Bentley’s unique images. To be honest, though great for the originalist, Snowflakes in Photographs is a bit dated and may not be as engaging for younger readers as one would hope. If you are inspired to do something similar, I suggest adding Kenneth Libbrecht’s The Secret Life of a Snowflake instead, as it is a more contemporary publication.
Fun activity: Watch these two super videos on one of my favorite websites for kids, www.thekidshouldseethis.com:
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