Wonderful Story on HUMAN Endeavor

books:


	• My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man Mary Bahr Boyds Mills Press, 2002 - 32 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Wonderful Story on HUMAN Endeavor

The more well known children's book, Snowflake Bentley (Caldecott Medal Book), may have won the Caldecott award, but I must confess to enjoying this book much more. "My Brother Loved Snowflakes," told from the brother's perspective, shows the human side of people who may be different than others, and makes the quest for knowledge about people, about us and our quest to learn about the world we are blessed with. Rather than playing up Willie Bentley as an eccentric, it shows him as unique, and shows children that for all his differences he gave much to our wealth of knowledge and above all the people in the story -- even the people who attend a lecture he walks out on without a word because of the snow, as very accepting that Bentley is who Bentley is and that there is nothing wrong with that. Since our children will meet so many other children who are vastly different than them, some of them seemingly eccentric, this is a subtle reminder that we all have value and that the difference is part of what makes the world interesting. We need that diversity.

This book will have an added interest to homeschoolers because Bentley and his brother are taught by their mother, a woman who encourages her son's love of learning -- and the father, though he doesn't "get" all this snowflake stuff, still strives to respect his son's desires and loves and encourage him and do what he can regardless.

We made this into something a snowflake learning fest. Bentley's photos of snowflakes are available in an inexpensive format, Snowflakes in Photographs. More modern and beautiful are the books by Kenneth G. Libbrecht. We chose The Snowflake. This had enlarged photographs and my first grader used pattern blocks to recreate some of them, as well as making paper snowflakes for the window. We also took black paper (left out in the car so it would be cold) to catch snowflakes and look at them with a magnifying glass. We will be revisiting "snowflake studis" later on when he is older to get more into the science of them, as is covered in the Libbrecht book.

Overall, this book was great for supporting our curriculum, which presents science and math in hands on ways and includes a lot of biography with explanations of how scientists go about "doing science" -- but which is to also remind us that science without the human element is purposeless, and sometimes even dangerous.

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Wonderful Story ~ and All True!

Wilson A. Bentley, the "Snowflake Man," (1865-1931) was born and raised in Vermont, or snow country...and he "lived his environment" to the hilt!
Every chance he got, he was out there in Nature, taking pictures of insects, water droplets, dew-covered spider webs and that for which he is best known ~ snowflakes and snow crystals.
He led a very interesting and, for the most part, misunderstood life, but he was not one to quit. No matter what the obstacle, he was determined to overlook and overcome it. And his brother, most admiringly, tells this story in a way that only a family member and first-hand observer can.
Even tho' the reminiscing is not his actual words, Charlie Bentley, Wilson's older brother, looks back with affection and admiration...and his words are made to warm the heart of the reader.
The illustrations are wonderful to behold ~ and if I were a young reader (I am in my late 50's now) I would have loved to have owned this book, even then. I am proud to have it in my library now, having a young Grandson who will learn about Nature at my own knee...I intend to encourage him to never be afraid of learning, of the wonders of creation, and of following his own star.
Wilson A. Bentley will be a perfect example of what one person can do to teach and inspire others to do what comes naturally to them, no matter what anyone else says, and in the end, that is always the only way to be, isn't it? ;)

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