Santiago! Santiago Ramón y Cajal - artist, scientist, troublemaker

Hosler (The Way of the Hive) energetically captures the early life and eventual success of Nobel Prize--winning Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852--1934) in this buoyant graphic novel biography. In 19th-century Ayerbe, Spain, a rambunctious and persistent Ramón y Cajal relentlessly pursues a career in art, despite his doctor father's wish he'd use his intellect to practice medicine. Ramón y Cajal's mischievous exploits to gather art materials leave him vilified in the eyes of adult citizens and his boarding school administration, especially for roping his friends and little brother, Pedro, into his schemes. After being sent to a Catholic school run by priests, where he endured flogging and nights without food, Ramón y Cajal attended medical school, became a doctor, and used his love of art to illustrate how the brain works. Full-color illustrations portraying animated facial expressions and kinetic action rendered in exaggerated lines imbues Ramón y Cajal's hardships with good humor and playfulness. Well-researched and packed with tongue-in-cheek hijinks, Hosler delivers a witty and earnest depiction of a boy who wholeheartedly believes that art can help people see the world and change the way one thinks. Source notes and a bibliography conclude. Ages 8--12. (Nov.)

Gr 4 Up--Hosler's twin passions for science and illustration find a kindred spirit in Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience and gifted medical illustrator. This book sketches Ramón y Cajal's childhood high jinks with a Calvin and Hobbes--like playful energy, full of dreaming, scheming, and creative pranks. Young Ramón y Cajal struggles with his strict 19th-century upbringing, as his demanding father forces him into a medical career--a blow to his artistic dreams. Ultimately, Ramón y Cajal combines art with medicine, inventing tissue dyes for microscopic slides and documenting neural cell pathways, a breakthrough which earns him the Nobel Prize. Ramón y Cajal's bumpy road to greatness is copiously researched, as detailed in the end notes, but the line from childhood struggles to scientific success is long, leaving the "why" of the story largely unanswered till quite late in the book. VERDICT A meeting of science and art that urges readers to hold onto their passions, this graphic novel is a dense, funny, ultimately inspiring read.--Emilia Packard

The childhood antics and later achievements of Nobel Prize--winning Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) are given an engaging graphic-novel treatment. As children, Santiago and his younger brother, Pedro, skipped school and were added to their town's official list of troublemakers. Their strict doctor father, who came from a background of hardship, was intent on Santiago's following him into a stable career in medicine. Though he was forbidden to pursue art, his true passion, Santiago stubbornly refused to give up on it, even when he was sent away to a brutal Catholic school. There, Santiago found plenty of opportunities for mischief, even building and firing a cannon, which landed him in jail. Eventually his path did lead him to medical school, and his enduring love for art paid off when he illustrated in groundbreaking work how the brain's nerve cells are organized. The skills Santiago cultivated during his misspent youth allowed him to achieve greatness in the field of neuroscience. His wild antics are depicted in humorous detail in illustrations that bring the historical setting to life. Slapstick humor and stylized, exaggerated representations of an impish Santiago contribute to the story's liveliness and fast pace. Extensive, detailed source notes show how much research went into the work and indicate which elements are based on fact and which Hosler imagined to fill in the narrative. Scientific discoveries spring to life in this action-packed graphic novel. (bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.