Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Louis Pasteur and Pasteurization
Illustrator: Ron Frenz , Keith Williams , Charles Barnett III
Nonfiction Graphic Novel Series
For ages 7 to 9
Capstone Press, 2007 ISBN: 978-0736868440
For thousands of years humans had no idea that tiny microorganisms - which we call germs - cause diseases. Many thought that illnesses were a punishment from God, and because they did not know about germs, they could not protect themselves from them. They knew that spoiled food could make you sick but they did know that seemingly good food could also make you ill because it was contaminated.
Then, in the mid 1800's a French scientist called Louis Pasteur was asked to take a look at some beet alcohol that had spoiled. By looking through his microscope Louis discovered that the spoiled batches of the alcohol had strange rod shaped microorganisms in them, while in the good batches there were only yeast cells floating in the alcohol. After some experimentation Louis learned how the process of fermentation works, but he still did not know what the rod shaped microorganisms were.
Further experiments proved that the microorganisms - which we know today were bacteria - live in the air and can spoil any food or drink that is exposed to the air. Something had to be done to find a safe way to keep food and drink free of bacteria.
In this excellent Graphic Library title the author and illustrators bring the story of Louis Pasteur to life with a well written text and full page graphic novel style illustrations. Further information about Louis Pasteur can be found at the back of the book.
