So, it just slightly based on the meager accounts of a tale that may have really happened... but still, it makes for a wonderful picture book! Perseverance, kindness, mystery... and true love bringing life to a lonely soul, all in the backdrop of the great navigations involving the Queen of Portugal herself: how can a reader resist it?

Suchi adds: The tale is based on the semi-legendary story of Fernando Lopez, who was a sort of Johnny Appleseed to the island of St. Helena. When he arrived, it was a barren spot in the Atlantic, but over the years, his work transformed it into a lush, beautiful island. Portuguese sailors would stop off there, take what they needed, and leave him grains and plants – even fruit trees – that he would plant and care for.

I showed this book and read it aloud to my kids in Junior Classical League's last meeting, and except for one kid, the  club's president and a Latin aficionado, none of us knew about the Roman numerals on the two last pages! Have fun learning!

From the publisher: 

Page IV, Super Bowl XLV. Built in MMVIII. Roman numerals are everywhere---on clocks, in books, and on buildings. But what do Roman numerals mean, and how does one use them? Fun with Roman Numerals is a straightforward and appealing introduction to a timely topic. On a scale of I to X, it's an XI! 

Science readers are to be found if you look around enough as this book demonstrates.  It is the fictional story of Massimo, a boy who regularly throws his uncle's lunch off a bridge to his boat as his uncle rows by below.  Galileo happens to see that the bread and the cheese land at the same time.  The story ends atop the leaning Tower of Pisa, as legend suggests Galileo did.

The illustrations are a little disappointing, the people in particular. The story is sometimes forced as math and science readers often are; however, overall it is a great tale that teaches a basic principle of physics sure to have your children dropping objects from heights.  It even alludes to Galileo's ramp experiments on acceleration.  The last page briefly fills in the reader on the period in history, what in the story is fact and fiction, and the formula for calculating speed.

Overall this is a great introductory physics science book.