The Man Who Knew Everything: The Strange Life of Athanasius Kircher is a biography written by Marilee Peters and features illustrations by Roxanna Bikadoroff. Athanasius Kircher was a 17th-century German Jesuit and scientist. He was one of the modern world’s first scientific celebrities—the Einstein or Stephen Hawking of his time. In 1638, Kircher was lowered into the smoking crater of Mt. Vesuvius to observe how volcanoes work. After thirty years, he published an 800-page volume of his findings—along with theories about fossils, geography, the Earth’s core, dragons, the location of the lost city of Atlantis, and more. Kircher has been described as the last Renaissance man, the first postmodernist, and “the man who knew everything.” This book celebrates Kircher’s insatiable curiosity, his willingness to ask questions and to suggest answers, even when he sometimes got it wrong.

The Man Who Knew Everything is well written and researched. I liked the straight forward but somehow playful tone of the book, and found that the illustrations added interest and humor. I loved how Athanasius's curiosity is framed in a way that show both how valuable it is, and the way others sometimes reacted to it. This could help young information seekers understand that while their questioning and answer seeking might not always be well received- it is important and could lead to interesting discoveries and adventures. I also like that the dangers, and mistakes that he made were touched upon as well. This could help adventurous young readers think through some of their explorations a bit more, and to show them that everyone makes mistakes and that is part of learning. I thought the text was accessible and would be interesting to readers from middle grade on up through adults.

The Man Who Knew Everything is a dramatic retelling of one man's fascinating life.

Amazing story of Athanasius Kircher! He was so curious about so many things he set out to learn as much as he could, for his time, and actually helped later scientists advance their own works decades and centuries later. man was a genius and seems to have been largely forgotten. Kudos to Marilee Peters for finding him and keeping his story alive! great book for all ages. Kircher had a brilliant mind!

I had never heard of Athanasius Kircher and his museum of oddities, but Peters and Bikadoroff (the illustrator) do a remarkable job in bringing this man's story to life. I have a shelf in my classroom filled with autobiographies of unsung heroes and forgotten historical figures and this book certainly earned its place among those tomes.

Top non-fiction picture book pick! This gorgeous picture book is a biography of "Athanasius Kircher, a 17th-century German Jesuit and scientist. " The Museum of Jurassic Technology states , "It is difficult to accurately summarize the breadth of activities explored and mastered by the 17th century Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. Inventor, composer, geographer, geologist, Egyptologist, historian, adventurer, philosopher, proprietor of one of the first public museums, physicist, mathematician, naturalist, astronomer, archaeologist, author of more than 40 published works: Kircher was one of the preeminent European intellectuals of 17th Century.". And yet Marilee Peters (author) and Roxanna Bikadoroff (illustrator) manage to beautifully capture the full extent of this brilliant and eccentric man's contributions to science and culture. Peters carefully curates and portrays her story in a child-friendly voice. The book is engaging , I believe, for school-age to adults! Bikadoroff's illustrations support Kircher's story perfectly; her fine etched illustrations remind me of actual 17th century ink illustrations. Peters supplies much reference information so any reader may further explore the life and accomplishments of Peters. Thank you so much for creating such an interesting work. I would highly recommend this book for anyone seeking a unique and engaging story about a very creative thinker.

I enjoyed this book it was well written and a joy to read. The authors gives insight to the subject matter that I felt was compelling and would recommend this book to a friend.

'The Man Who Knew Everything: The Strange Life of Athanasius Kircher' by Marilee Peters with illustrations by Roxanna Bikadoroff is a weird ride through the life of a curious character.

Kircher had a museum filled with oddities and inventions. His life was full of curiosity and adventure. He wanted to know more about volcanos, so he was lowered in to one. He made many scientific theories about the world around him (most of them wrong). He lived in the 17th century and was a Jesuit at a time when many of the things he wrote about could have gotten him in trouble with the church.

I'd never heard of this man, but apparently there are fans of his in the modern age, and even a museum with some recreations of his adventures. On the one hand, he comes across as a blow hard and a fraud, but on the other hand, he seems to be very curious about the world he lives in. I found it a really fun read, and I loved the illustrations by Roxanna Bikadoroff.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Annick Press Ltd. and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

This is the sort of subject one comes to expect in children's books.More of an historical curiosity than any real information. It is interesting. The guy had some brilliant insights and wild ideas. Fun to flip through rather than to sit down for a focused read.

Marilee Peters delivers again! For those that were wrapped up in Patient Zero, The Man Who Knew Everything is another winner. Peters entertains with a fascinating tale about Athanasius Kircher -
a very colorful scholar and showman. I wouldn't be surprised if this title ends up on a few state award lists or more.

One of the attributes I'd most like my students to leave school with is burning curiosity and this book portrays a man exhibiting this trait. Sure, he probably had as many misses as hits, and probably erred on the side of philosophizing rather than careful experimentation- but there's a lesson in that as well.
Well laid out and illustrated, perfectly suited to elementary students.

The Man Who Knew Everything is a fun and colorful biography of Athanasius Kircher. Part scientist, part inventor, part show man, part con man: Athanasius Kircher made his mark on history. He explored inside a volcano by being lowered into itself mouth in a wicker basket. He wrote many books about his theories and findings. He drew up a design for a cat piano. And he filled a museum with fantastic creations, inventions, and displays (though same were not exactly grounded in fact and science).

Athanasius Kircher was an interesting and unique man - a celebrity scientist of his time. Though he had more misses than hits when it came to his theories, his work helped spread and improve scientific knowledge and it laid the groundwork for other scientists who came after him.

If you're looking for an interesting and well-illustrated biography, be sure to check out The Man Who Knew Everything!

The Man Who Knew Everything is an illustrated biography of Athanasius Kircher aimed at younger readers. Written by Marilee Peters, the prose is informal and interesting. Kircher lived an incredible life which almost defies belief (when faced with a devastating volcanic eruption, he decides to pay a local guide to help him up the mountain and lower him into the vent so he could observe and take samples). Unsurprisingly, he nearly died.

He was a polymath, with a wide interest in a huge variety of subjects. His known written works include treatises (not always accurate) on Egyptian hieroglyphics, natural history, mathematics, physics, medicine, language, geology, music theory and many other subjects.

The art for this short book (61 pages) is by Roxanna Bikadoroff and plays up the fantastic elements of Kircher's life. There are period woodcuts juxtaposed with charming pen and ink and colorized maps which add a lot to the narrative.

There are also sidebars with highlight information from Kircher's life and the social and scientific upheaval of the mid 17th century. At the end of the book are good references for further reading along with an index and maps and timelines with interesting points about Kircher and his journeys.

All in all, a worthwhile biography for young readers about a formerly obsolete scientist who deserves more modern interest.

Charmingly illustrated, this book tells the story of one of the many great Jesuit scientists (a tradition that continues today), Atanatius Kircher. Living in the 17th Century, he wrote, observed, and collected information on an astonishing array of things. Largely forgotten he set the stage for later discoveries in germ theory, Egyptology, and plate tectonics among other areas where he was completely wrong.

The book is readable and has a fantastic resource section at the end, but the author fails somewhat because he believes untrue things about science and the Catholic Church of the time and happily repeats them, perpetuating the error. Without much explanation he allows the reader to assume that the Inquisition was the enemy of science when this was not really the case..

It credits Kircher with developing the scientific method when, actually, it was another cleric, Roger Bacon, who did. I know this because I've read Bacon's book.

Finally, he says that the Church labelled Galileo as a heretic because of his heliocentric theory. While this was involved in Galileo's on-going conflict, in actuality he wasn't tried and his house arrest was part of a plea bargain.

While these things are somewhat tangential to Kircher's story, it saddens me to see these untruths perpetuated in books for children. Careful parents will want to use these faults as teaching moments for their children.

In THE MAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING, Marilee Peters (author) and Roxanna Bikadoroff (illustrator) present the strange life of Athanasius Kircher. At first, I didn’t actually believe all the events in Kircher’ s life. So, I checked from other sources and confirmed that this man really did do all these unusual things. For example, yes, Kircher he really did have himself lowered into a volcano!

Kircher had many unusual (and often, false) theories about things. He thought that mountains were “actually hollow, with channels of fire and water running through them.”

One funny section presents Kircher’ s “Hits and Misses.” One idea was how to avoid the plague. He recommended “wearing a dead toad around your neck. . . Because a toad’s skin was blotchy, like a plague victim’s, Kircher reasoned the disease would be attracted to it, and not to the wearer.” (That idea was a “Miss.”)

I thought the most creative idea was how to increase church attendance. Kircher used his “magic lantern” at night, “projecting images of devils into people’s houses to scare them into coming to church!” (Apparently it worked.)

So overall, I found THE MAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING to be a delightful read. Truth is stranger than fiction.


Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher.

This is a book about a man I have never heard of. He lived in the Renaissance, but was sort of ahead of his time, as well as behind the times as well.

He tried to study things, and figure out the natural world, but without other scientists working with him, and the worry about the Catholic Church censoring him, he didn't come up with too outlandish theories.

Apparently he did figure out that germs killed people, but then he also believed Bees come from manure. He sort of guessed about plat tectonics, but then thought that mountains were all hollow.\\

THis should be a fun book for kids as they probably know more that's Kircher did, and can guess which things he wrote about were correct or not.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Fun, good science book for kids (and their parents)

I enjoyed this book. The artwork is great (illustrator Roxanna Bikadoroff) and the information interesting (author Marilee Peters). I’ve read a lot of history of science books and never came across Athanasius Kircher. He didn’t really fit into the scientific revolution and Peters very carefully points out how the study of science has changed since Kircher’s time. Nonetheless, Kircher’s curiosity about the world was phenomenal. Overall this is a fun read.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

Although a book for teens or pre-teens this is a delightful book with information and illustrations about the unusual figure of Athanasius Kircher. The man lost to history is a cross between Leonardo Da Vinci and P. T. Barnum. Kircher had a delightful museum of curiosities that matched his books on strange, bizarre and often accurate theories of how nature works.

While enjoying the book you get to understand why Kircher is not well known today. He outlived his time as the amateur polymath idiosyncratic scientific explorer gave way to what we know as the hard sciences, and the triumph of the scientific method. Kircher speculated widely in ways that would be impossible for a scientist to do. Its interesting to know about Kircher and this book does its job.

This is a great kids book that shows how important it is to follow your dreams and explore things you don't understand. Even if things don't work out exactly as planned, or you end up being completely wrong, you never know how your actions will affect the future.

Kircher reminds me of the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none." He worked with the knowledge the world had at the time to try to explain things happening in the world. He wasn't really focused on one thing, and this book explains the interesting ideas he came up with. It's a great way to look back on the past and see how far we have come from humble beginnings.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.
Author: Marilee Peters
Publisher: Annick Press Ltd.
Publication Date: 10 Oct 2017

I read this to Truman. It was OK, very mediocre.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Esperto di matematica, musica, fisica, scienze naturali, medicina, geroglifici, crittografia...

Non c'è stato campo dello scibile umano in cui il gesuita Athanasius Kircher non si sia cimentato, spinto da una feroce sete di sapere e da una curiosità nei confronti del mondo insaziabile.

Nato in una povera famiglia tedesca, prende i voti durante il Seicento, un secolo di grandi scoperte e grandi persecuzioni di scienziati da parte di quella Chiesa che pure gli ha permesso di studiare; e mentre colleziona, osserva, scrive, insegue nozioni, si cala in vulcani, crea collezioni e musei, intrattiene corrispondenza con centinaia di scienziati riesce sempre a tenersi dal lato buono della dottrina.

Ha sbagliato? In molte  cose sì; qualche altra l'ha inventata di sana pianta, per stupire ed accrescere la sua fama.

Ma niente viene tolto al fascino di una figura brillante ai limiti della genialità, e del segno che ha lasciato nei secoli.