Patricia ValdezRezensionen

Beautiful and so worth the read. I wish there were more written about this reptile loving lady.

A lively biography of a scientist who designed the London Zoo's reptile house (and hosted tea parties with Komodo Dragons!).

Independent Reading Level: Grades 1-4

What a wonderful story about a wonderful woman. Joan Proctor had a chronic illness. And while it hampered somethings, it did not hamper her love for reptiles. She became an expert and used her expertise to make things better at the London Zoo for all reptiles. Particularly, a set of Komodo Dragons. Her legacy lives on in her research and her friendship with her scaley friends.

How to Hear the Universe: Gaby Gonzalez and the Search for Einstein’s Ripples in Space-Time by Patricia Valdez and illustrated by Sara Palacios. This book takes big, complex topics, such as the universe, and makes them understandable to a young audience. A strong female physicist from Argentina follows Einstein’s research into ripples in space-time. She wants to hear the universe. Albert Einstein knew a frog on a lily pad caused ripples when it jumped and wondered if there were ripples in space. Gaby Gonzalez wondered if the space-time could be imagined as a large lily pad, since planets follow a curvature around the sun, and if so, when objects move do they cause ripples in space-time that we can hear? And that is what she set out to do, listen to the universe. A wonderful introduction to science through the act of being curious and asking why. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Albert Einstein

Girls can like reptiles! I don't personally but hey, this book reminds girls that you can! Lizards and such aren't just for boys.

We learn about how Joan loved reptiles so much she worked as a curator for Natural History Museum. She designed homes for reptiles at the London Zoo, especially the Komodo dragon. In fact, she had one named Sumbawa. She walked him around on a leash and fed him like a pigeon. SO cool!

A biography of immigrant scientist Gabriela Gonzalez, who, armed with modern technology, completed the work that Albert Einstein had begun one hundred years earlier, confirming his theory of gravitational waves and breaking new ground for space-time research"-

Fantastic short picture book biography of Joan Proctor -- a woman who loved reptiles and went on to study and advocate for them. I enjoyed the illustrations, I enjoyed learning about Joan.

This book begins explaining the childhood of Joan Proctor and how she was different from the other children. She would often skip birthday parties or events to spend time with her reptiles or at the Reptile House. She spent time volunteering at the reptile house and eventually became the head curator. Here she learned about all the different reptiles and cared for them if they were injured or ill. She recorded a lot of research on the reptiles at the museum and her work with Komodo dragons gained the attention of many. This allowed her to share her findings and love of reptiles with many. She continued to educate younger children with similar interests, so that they know it is okay to be different.
This is a longer picture book, but the content is age appropriate for any level. I think it would be a good read aloud to introduce students to the topic of reptiles, while also allowing them to learn about a woman that played a significant role in the research of reptiles.

Even as a young child, Joan loved reptiles from lizards to crocodiles and everything in between. Later in life, she had the opportunity to work at the London Zoo, designing and maintaining the Reptile House. Here, she was also able to be one of the first people to seriously study Komodo dragons and learn more about their nature.

This was a very interesting picture book biography. I had been looking forward to reading it, and it did not disappoint. Prior to this, I knew nothing about Joan Procter (sad to say, I had never even heard her name), but this helped to correct that. She seemed like a wonderfully intelligent and kind-hearted person. Of course, as a picture book biography, it didn't necessarily go into extreme depth on all aspects of her life. For instance, her chronic illness is only barely mentioned, although undoubtedly it affected much of her day-to-day, especially considering how she died at such a young age.

The illustrations are quite lovely. I'm not sure how to describe them well, but they walk a nice middle ground between muted and bold colors as well as realistic and stylized representation. They certainly catch the eye and make a nice complement to the text. There are also some photographs included with the notes at the back, which explain Joan Procter's life in more detail as well as more facts about Komodo dragons. The final page includes a bibliography and a sample of Joan Procter's original paintings.

This book will likely appeal to many for various reasons, including:
- budding scientists and future veterinarians,
- reptile lovers of all stripes,
- those who like stories about trail-blazing women,
- fans of history/biography in general,
and more. Highly recommend.

Joan Procter was born in London in 1897 into a family involved in the arts and sciences. As a little girl, Joan played with lizards instead of dolls. She was in poor health all of her life, so she spent a great deal of time at home studying reptiles.

For her sixteenth birthday, Joan received a young crocodile as a pet, taking it to school one day to the consternation of everyone else.

Because of frequent illnesses, she gave up the idea of attending college, but was able to get a job as an assistant to the curator at the Natural History Museum, taking over when the curator retired.

When the London Zoo decided to replace its outdated reptile house, the director asked Joan to help design a new one. The resulting habitat was entirely her work except for the external architectural features. She pioneered many new ideas for housing reptiles including the use of ‘Vita-glass,’ which enabled natural ultraviolet light - needed by reptiles for the synthesis of Vitamin D - to reach the animals.

Most notably, she also added an enclosure for the first two live Komodo dragons to arrive in Europe. No one knew much about these large lizards, native to the Indonesian island of Komodo, before Joan began to study them. When one of the two, named Sumbawa, got sick, Joan nursed it back to health, and Sumbawa became a companion to Joan.

The author reports:

“For the rest of her life, she could be found walking or riding [in a wheelchair] through the zoo, with Sumbawa by her side.”

Joan died in 1931 at age thirty-four from complications of her chronic illness and cancer. Shortly before her death, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Chicago in recognition of her achievements.

An Afterword by the author gives more background on Joan as well as information about Komodo dragons, the largest living species of lizard in the world. A bibliography is included.

Felicita Sala is a self-taught illustrator with a distinctive technique employing vibrant colors and a style resembling animation but remaining true to the photographs she works from.

Evaluation: The author and illustrator both report being awed by seeing Komodo dragons and learning that it was a woman who pioneered research into the nature and care of Komodo dragons in captivity. Readers will be similarly impressed and inspired.

The book follows Joan Procter and her job as a curator. I thought the illustrations were beautiful, but the text seemed to skip around a bit. For example, one page discussed her childhood, and the next page discussed her career as a museum curator

Even as a little girl, Joan Proctor preferred lizards and crocodiles to princess-y things. She kept lizards as pets, and after school worked as an assistant to George Boulenger at the Natural History Museum in London. Later in her career, she became the curator of reptiles at the Reptile House of the London Zoo, where she designed a custom enclosure for two Komodo dragons. She died at age 34 due to complications from a chronic illness.

Back matter includes a biography of Joan Procter, information on Komodo dragons, and a bibliography.

Great book that teaches the reader about who was Joan Procter, it taught me something I didn't know.

I want to be her when i grow up! All I could think by reading this biography about her is, why have I never heard of Joan Procter. I am speechless about this book, honestly! I had all these same feelings as a child. My first career I wanted as a child was a veterinarian, teaching was my second! This lady got to design a whole reptile house and work first hand with the reptiles, not to mention, walk a Komodo Dragon like it was a dog. Super jealous of this! I can always switch to science! Never too late!!

picture book biography about a girl who loved reptiles; her chronic illness kept her from a lot of schooling, but she worked hard, on her own, and became an amazing herpetologist. All this done at a time when women were NOT doing these things. 1897-1931