Who Was Marie Curie?

This engaging chapter book introduces young readers to the remarkable life of Marie Curie, a Polish-French scientist whose work revolutionized physics and chemistry. It covers her early life in Warsaw, her struggles to pursue higher education as a woman, her groundbreaking discoveries of polonium and radium with her husband Pierre, and her historic two Nobel Prizes. The book also touches on her humanitarian efforts during World War I and the personal sacrifices she made for science, including her eventual death from radiation exposure. It's an excellent resource for children aged 6-9 to learn about perseverance, scientific inquiry, and the impact of women in STEM.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867, Marie Curie was forbidden to attend the male-only University of Warsaw, so she enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris to study physics and mathematics. There she met a professor named Pierre Curie, and the two soon married, forming one of the most famous scientific partnerships in history. Together they discovered two elements and won a Nobel Prize in 1903. (Later Marie won another Nobel award for chemistry in 1911.) She died in Savoy, France, on July 4, 1934, a victim of many years of exposure to toxic radiation.