Rewriting the Rules

How Dr. Kathleen Friel

Created New Possibilities

for Brain Research and Disability

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Millbrook Press / Lerner Books

pub. 9.9.2025

32 pages

Ages 6 - 10

Author: Danna Zeiger

   Illustrator: Josee Bisaillon

Character: Kathleen Friel

Overview:

"When Kathleen Friel was young, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and a doctor told her parents all the things she'd never be able to do.

They left his office for good and found a new doctor. 

As Kathleen grew up, she found her own methods to tackle tricky tasks and make her way through the world. After becoming fascinated by science, she went on to earn a PhD, investigating how injured brains can build new connections. She now runs her own lab, developing new techniques to help others with cerebral palsy."

Tantalizing taste:

"The world is full of limitations,

but as Kathleen discovered,

there are many ways to wish on dandelion wisps.

Kathleen just had to find her own."

And something more: Danna Zeiger in the Author's Note explains: "Kathleen has taught me a lot of complicated scientific concepts and techniques over the years. However, the most valuable lesson she taught me, which I hope readers glean from this book, is this: People who think or move differently 'have so such to offer!'"

Imogen

The Life and Work

of Imogen Cunningham

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Viking Books for Young Readers

(Penguin Random House)

pub. 8.26.2025

40 pages

Ages 4 - 8

Author: Elizabeth Partridge

   Illustrator: Yuko Shimizu

Character:  Imogen Cunningham

Overview:

"Imogen Cunningham loved to observe the world. She noticed the colors in the woods outside her house and how light and shadows moved between the trees. She tried to capture this beauty on paper with pencils, but something was missing. One day she read about a woman in Paris who earned a living as a photographer, and she knew she was meant to do the same. With the support of her loving father, she then began her journey to become one of the most important photographers in America."

Tantalizing taste:

"Imogen and her friends went out in the woods and read poetry

to one another. She draped them in gauzy fabrics and took photographs

as they acted out the poems.

Inside her darkroom, she developed the negatives and made prints,

then hung them up to dry.

There it was, right in the photographs, all the soft cadence of the

poetry, all the beauty, all the feelings she carried deep inside her.

Nothing was missing."

And something more: Elizabeth Partridge in the Author's Note explains: "Imogen Cunningham was my grandmother. To me, she was always very old, and always a photographer. Cameras and taking photographs and making beautiful prints were all woven so deeply in her, it was impossible to separate Imogen from her photography. Photography was not something she did; it was who she was.…

I learned to watch my grandmother in the garden with her plants, or when we were out together on the steep, busy streets. I wanted to see what she was noticing, see what caught her eye. 'I don't hunt for things,' she said. 'I just wait till something strikes me.' Ordinary moments that I overlooked would capture her attention: someone counting out change in the palm of their hand or the zigzagging shadow of outside stairs against a wooden building."

When Science Stood Still

How S. Chandrasekhar Predicted

the Existence of Black Holes

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Margaret K. McElderry Books

(Simon & Schuster)

pub. 10.14.2025

40 pages

Ages 4 - 8

Author: Shruthi Rao

   Illustrator: Srinidhi Srinivasan

Character: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Overview:

"When scientists get things right, science leaps forward. When they get things wrong, they learn from their mistakes, and science continues to advance. But sometimes, even when scientists get it right, nobody pays attention. Then, for a while, science stands still.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was a brilliant scientist with eyes fixed toward the stars. As a young man, he developed the theory that would eventually lead to the discovery of black holes. But when he presented his findings to the world’s leading Western scientists, they scoffed at his ideas. Chandra knew he was right. But would anyone listen?

Learn the true story of a relentless scientist and his cosmic discovery that had to wait for science to change its mind."

Tantalizing taste:

"For Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, math

wasn't made up of problems, but of solutions.

Sitting by himself among his grandfather's

books in the South Indian city of Madra,

Chandra devoured books on advanced math.

He often biked to the beach to sit under the twinkling stars,

those big balls of gases made of a gazillion atoms swirling around,

gravity squishing those atoms together so hard that they combined

to give out heat and light."

And something more: A Closer Look at the back of the book explains: "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, popularly known as Chandra, was an Indian-bor American astrophysicist... He was just nineteen when, on the voyage to England, Chandra made his groundbreaking discovery. Einstein's special theory of relativity explains how speed affects mass, time, and space, especially the speed of light. Chandra thought of applying this theory to stars, because particles inside stars travel at speeds close to that of light. That is when his calculations suggested that some dying stars behave differently."

And as Shruthi Rao writes in the final pages of the story:

"This discovery has led to a better understanding

of the universe,

of how it works,

and how it began!

An understanding that came decades late because

the world ignored a brilliant young scientist.

Finally, about fifty years after Chandra first talked about

stars disappearing, he won the Nobel Prize for his work.

More than the recognition, what mattered to him was that,

finally, the world saw the truth.

And once again,

science was leaping forward."