Ernest Rutherford - Just an ordinary boy

At the end of the Earth, in the tiny town of Spring Grove, New Zealand, a baby called Ernest (no ‘a’!) Rutherford gurgles in his bassinet. It is 30 August 1871.

This paragraph sets the scene at the beginning of the book and along with the illustrations enables the reader to visualise the living conditions of the time. Ernest grows up in a family of 14! Not something children of the present day would relate to!

Also, learning to read and write as well as learning his 12 times tables seems to be an amazing feat for his mother to have achieved with such a large family.

One thing that I wasn’t keen on was the front cover illustration (repeated on page 5? of the book) - no page numbers 🙁 The eyelids and lips are far too pinky/red for my liking and I feel this distracts from the overall otherwise excellent picture of the young Ernest.

Obviously the family is very poor and cannot afford the education that is required for Ernest to achieve his dreams but this is where the book strikes an accord with me. Ernest never gave up in his endeavours to reach his goals of becoming a scientist. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again.’ (A phrase coined in the 1850s) A lesson all students need to hear!

Ernest is certainly one of New Zealand’s most famous people and I learnt a lot from reading this book myself. I think it would make an excellent resource for schools to show how, with perseverance and patience you can achieve great things in life.

The inclusion of other famous scientists, a timeline and a Glossary make this a perfect book for a primary school library.

Do you have any advisory warnings for this book? No

Would this book work as a read aloud? Yes definitely

Is there a particular part of the country that it’s set in? New Zealand (England, Canada and the world!)