My youngest daughter is nicknamed The Mouse, but she is also the Queen of Random. Spouting bizarre bits of nonsense is her trademarked move. She is a positively absurd little girl. Last week, the Queen said to me: “I am still curious about a lot of things.” She couldn’t name a single thing, in that moment, that she was still curious about but I said that I am very happy to know she is still curious, that it is important to remain curious because the world is a wondrous place. She asked me what I am still curious about and I easily rolled off a number of things that continue to boggle my feeble mind: radio, airplanes, vinyl records. She emphatically agreed with that last one, how is there music in those grooves? And how does a needle help us hear it? I dunno, sweetie, I just don’t know. And I kinda love not knowing. I never want to not be in awe of the magic in the air, even if the magic can be explained within a couple of clicks of a Google search.
Curiosity, a gift that cannot be wrapped or returned, is a curious thing. Do we as adults instill it in those with whom we are charged with raising, or does it occur naturally thanks to happenstance? For Albert Einstein, per On A Beam Of Light, a new picture book by Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky, the answer is murky. There is clearly an innate sense of wonder and imagination in young Albert. At a young age, that which was lying in wait inside him was paired with a physical gift, a small present, that spurred on his famously rabid curiosity. And it is that curiosity, of course, that eventually lead to many a great invention.
On A Beam Of Light pairs rough, sketch-style artwork with randomly scribbled text to creatively zoom through the life of the great thinker and inventor. The book is a delight for the senses, and for curious types, is a hardback example of the joys of having a vivid imagination and of remaining in awe of the world.
For Albert many years ago it was a compass, but in 2013 this elegant new picture book might just be that physical gift to spur on the next generation of wonderers who, like my Mouse, are still curious about a lot of things.
