Biography of the MonthSnowflake Bentley

written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin illustrated by Mary Azarian

Snowflake Bentley is the story of

Wilson Bentley, a farmer born in 1865

in the heart of Vermont's "snowbelt."

Perhaps it was no accident that Bentley

always loved snow more than anything

else in the world. When he was fifteen

his mother gave him a microscope.

When he looked at snowflakes under

the microscope he was stunned by their

delicate beauty.

He decided he had to share that beauty

with others. But he did not know how.

And there was no one to teach him. His

father and his neighbors thought trying

to save snowflakes was foolishness,

Bentley was determined. And by the

time he died in 1931 he was considered

the world's expert on snowflakes.

Illustrated by

Mary Azarian

Snowflake Bentley won

the Caldecott Medal in

1999.

Other books illustrated by Mary Azarian

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty

should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was

ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without

leaving any record behind."

Learn more about Wilson Bentley at

http://www.snowflakebentley.com/bio.htm

Written by

Jaqueline

Briggs Martin

Here are her

other books

that we have

in our library.

919.804

MAR

E

MAR

Learn more at

http://bentley.sciencebuff.org

“Quick, the first flakes are coming; the couriers of

the coming snow storm. Open the skylight, and

directly under it place the carefully prepared

blackboard, on whose ebony surface the most

minute form of frozen beauty may be welcome

from cloud-land. The mysteries of the upper air

are about to reveal themselves, if our hands are

deft and our eyes quick enough.”

—Wilson A. Bentley, "The Story of the Snow

Crystals” Harper's Monthly Magazine, 104

(1901:Dec.-1902:May).