Margaret Jean Anderson

One day, Marjorie Malcolm-Scott meets Shona McInnes in the park. They are both orphans, but while Shona lives in an orphanage, Marjorie lives with her Uncle Fergus in a rich part of Edinburgh. The girls become friendly enough to exchange identities when they are sent away to escape the bombings. Shona is being sent to the Scottish countryside with the students from her school. Marjorie is bound for Canada to live with relatives. Frightened of the sea voyage, Marjorie convinces Shona to trade places with her. They vow to meet at the park after the war. Marjorie and another orphan, Anna, go to live with the Miss Coopers in Canonbie. Years pass as the war rages throughout Europe. Marjorie's first life slips away, and she becomes Shona McInnes from Canonbie, Scotland. She thrives under the tender care of her guardians. At the end of the war, Marjorie passes the entrance exams to Edinburgh University. The only blight on her happiness is the deception she's lived under all these years. She must go back to the park and find the real Shona. Only then will she be free to live her own life.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com… (altro)

I think this book would have impressed me more if I hadn't read so many Isaac Newton biographies already. As it is, there were some errors and quotations taken out of context that rather bothered me.

It is medium format, 128 pages, including 11 chapter and a short appendix w/ suggested experiments. There are numerous illustrations in black and white, generally photographs of locations and portraits and contemporary illustrations, but also some diagrams and maps.

Interesting remark: Newton was so excited by the use of integration to find the area under a hyperbola that he calculated it out to 50 or so decimals. Puzzling.

Quotations out of context: "...standing on the shoulders of giants". Said in a letter to Hooke, and really intended to be obnoxious.

Weirdest illustration: Isaac Newton Shopping Center in Grantham.

Irritating bit: Kepler's third law is paraphrased so vaguely as to mean very little. I guess a formula with a 2/3 power was out of the question.

Misinformation:
* The Gregorian telescope is not practical. Actually, it has its good points and some are still used today, although the similar looking Cassegraine is more popular.
* The mathematical bridge over the River Cam was constructed by Isaac Newton. The person responsible was actually much less well known that Newton, and primarily into bridges.

The photograph of the school in Grantham makes it look quite beautiful.… (altro)