Grade 3-6–An attractive picturbooks biography, this slim, oversize volume is as much a treat for the eye as it is for the curious mind. Smiths crisp, realistic paintings, often flooded with the bright green of pea plants, accompany Bardoes readable text describing a scientist whose physical and educational needs led him to the religious life, but whose curiosity about inherited traits caused him to become the father of genetics. Bright diagrams clearly depict Mendels famous plants, the internal arrangement of their seeds, and the results of carefully controlled experiments in cross-breeding with certain traits firmly in mind. An extensive authors note presents further information. This eye-catching picturbooks biography falls nicely into a field that already includes the complexities of Peter Síss fascinating The Tree of Life (Farrar, 2003), Michael Doolings handsome Young Thomas Edison (Holiday House, 2005), James Cross Giblins eloquent Thomas Jefferson (Scholastic, l994), and Diane Stanleys attractive Leonardo da Vinci (Morrow, 1996).