posted on 04 Jun 2020

Albie’s First Word by Jacqueline Tourville, illustrated by Wynne Evans

This is a picture book that was published in the USA back in 2014 and I have never seen a copy in a UK bookshop – which is a great pity because this book would be a great boon for any anxious parents who think their child isn’t meeting the ‘development thresholds’ so many health and childcare professionals and educationalists tell them are ‘normal’.

What author Jacqueline Tourville has done is to seize on the remarkable fact that the great scientist and mathematician, Albert Einstein spent his early childhood years refusing to speak. Not that he was an unhappy boy, nor did he lack awareness or curiosity – quite the opposite in fact: he just didn’t want to speak. Even his younger sister zoomed past him in terms of developing language skills – a fact that didn’t seem to bother the young Albie (as he was known in his childhood) one little bit.

But, of course, the silence did both his parents who were eventually driven to take the boy to see a doctor. The kind and perceptive Dr Hoffmann examined Albie and confirmed that physically there was nothing wrong with him. Perhaps, he suggested, all the boy needed was plenty of intellectual stimulation and eventually he will be moved to speak.

So his parents started a regime of exposing the child to all sorts of cultural entertainments.  First a classical music concert – Mozart - which Albie loved but didn’t move him to speak. Next he attends a lecture by an eminent professor on the subject of astronomy which moves him to squeeze his father’s hand with happiness but still leaves him silent. Even winning a pond yacht sailing competition can’t coax Albie into using words.

His parents, seeing all this, make a final decision to leave the boy alone and just love him for who he was – words or no words. But that very same night, his mother finds him sitting in a chair by the window watching the wonders of the night sky unfold before his eyes and finally he utters the word ‘Why?’ – a simple word that starts his search for an answer that will shape the genius he will become.

The story ends with a full page biographical profile of Albert Einstein and his achievements written specifically for the younger reader.

What helps to make this book such a winner are the really superb and detailed illustrations by Wynne Evans. Remarkably, this is his debut as a book illustrator and that really surprised me given the quality of this work.

You can get yourself a copy of this book by searching for it on the internet if you want - or you could go and place an order for it with your local independent bookshop who will, I’m sure, source a copy for you.

 

Terry Potter

June 2020

(Click on any image below to view them in a slide show format)