Biography Blog post "The Girl Who Thought in Pictures."

 

Summary of the book:

“The Girl Who Thought in Pictures.” This story is about Temple Grandin, who was diagnosed with autism and went on to become a scientist and inventor. Many people did not believe Temple would learn to talk or become a person to make a difference in the world. When Temple started school, the children would pick on her and laugh at her; Temple had enough, fought back against the bullying, and was kicked out of school. Temple's mother sent Temple to live with her aunt on a ranch. Temple had determined that she was a visual thinker. With her visual thinking abilities, Temple's mind allowed her to connect with animals in a way no one else had. This connection led to Temple inventing improvements for farms around the globe, especially with cattle. Temple went to college, obtained three degrees, and is a well-known scientist (Mosca & Rieley, 2018).

 

Evaluate Genre/ Illustrations:

When comparing the materials to the quality in the biography checklist, the book "The Girl Who Thought in Pictures," all of the qualities listed are addressed in the book. The book is grounded in facts; it provides a timeline of events in Temples's life, and the information came from Temple herself. The facts and storyline are seamlessly integrated. The story is detailed and accurate accomplishments of Temple Grandin. The book's character Temple is well-developed and multidimensional; it relates to Temple having autism and how it's not stopped her from her accomplishments in life, avoiding stereotypes in the book's story. The illustrator of the book is Daniel Rieley (BookRoo, 2023). Rieley is an illustrator based out of London (BookRoo, 2023). Rieley has illustrated several books "Green Sea Turtle," The Tale of a Toothbrush", "Me and Mister P: Maya's Storm", and "This Is a Serious Book", along with several other books (BookRoo, 2023). The illustrations give visuals of what is taking place in the story. The picture shows Temple as a baby, at school, at the ranch, and creating her inventions; the illustrations provide several images of how Temple's brain sees things in visual form in her mind. The colorful and blended illustrations draw the reader's attention to the different details highlighted in the pictures.

 

Motivational Activities:

The book "The Girl Who Thought in Pictures" is a book that can challenge the students in ways of how they think about themselves or how they think others feel about them. This book can teach the different perspectives and ways things are processed differently by each individual. When a student thinks of an inventor or scientist, they most likely do not think of a person with autism; this book shows the diversity in the world and how people of all kind shape the world. An activity that could be used is having students assigned to different parts of the timeline and have the students act out the different parts and, as they do so, develop the timeline on the whiteboard so that in the end, a discussion about Temples struggles and accomplishments can occur with the entire class.

Another activity would be to have the students put the timeline of Temples' life in order. Have students break up into small groups and put the timeline pieces in order according to how the events occurred.

 

Personal comments/ Author background information:

"The Girl Who Thought in Pictures" will be added to my favorites. The author does a great job explaining how Temple was miss judged as a child, and she's never allowed autism to stop her from achieving her goals in life. This book is excellent for learning about Temple Grandin, how she became a scientist, and her accomplishments throughout her life. The author of "The girl who Thought in Pictures" is Julia Finley Mosca (Bookroo, 2023). Mosca also wrote, "The Girl with A Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague," "The Doctor with An Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr. Patricia Bath," and "The Astronaut with A Song for The Stars: The Story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa" (Bookroo, 2023).

 

References

Daniel Rieley. Children’s Book Illustrator. (n.d.). https://bookroo.com/creatives/daniel-rieley

Julia Finley Mosca. Children’s Book Author. (2023). https://bookroo.com/creatives/julia-finley-mosca

Mosca, J. F., & Rieley, D. (2018). The girl who thought in pictures: The story of dr. temple grandin. Scholastic Inc.