Come See the Earth Turn

Come See the Earth Turn: The story of Leon Foucault by Lori Mortensen, illustrations by Raul Allen, Tricycle Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-58246-284-4
The story of a sickly, slow-moving child who eventually "measures the speed of light more accurately than anyone before him." While Foucault's childhood was less than ideal, his loving mother and caring, observant teachers saw the gifts he had and helped him work with them. Love this and the fact that the author chose to make this clear in the book. His slow, careful methods led him to successfully build many "clever inventions and magnificent contraptions", one of which helped answer a question that had long baffled scientists: "How can science prove that the earth spins on its axis?" How can they prove that the earth is not the center of the universe? Even though most scientists believed that the earth did turn, they couldn't prove it! Leon's answer: a pendulum. Imagine getting an invitation in the mail which read: "You are invited to come see the earth turn...". While I would never have known that a pendulum swinging from side to side proved that the earth was rotating, the scientists knew immediately.
While this book does a wonderful job of relaying information about a scientific experiment, it does an even better job of showing the ordinary human spirit behind this now famous invention. This is one of my favorite themes: that we all have our gifts, and bless the person/mother/teacher who invests the time to help us bring it forth to share with the world.