Einstein's early years as an odd, awkward outsider with his peers and in the classroom will hearten any child who isn't a capable athlete or straight-A scholar. This ink-and-watercolor picture book biography follows Einstein's life from his birth in 1879 (a very fat newborn with an oversized and oddly shaped head) to young adulthood (he couldn't get into college at first because his student record had been so poor). He was so unresponsive in class that one teacher told him that he would never get anywhere in life. Bad-tempered and reluctant to join the other children in their games, he'd build an enormous house of cards fourteen stories high and preferred solving puzzles to playing sports. Young Einstein wondered to himself what it would be like to ride a light beam. His scientific musings are illustrated with a background panorama of swirling numbers, shapes, and galaxies, using computer graphics mixed with the watercolor paintings. An author's note regarding Einstein's later achievements precedes a detailed bibliography of adult Einstein books. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.