Cheryl Bardoe | National Math Festival

Cheryl Bardoe

Cheryl Bardoe is the author of Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain, a Mathical Book Prize Award Winner; Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas, an Orbis Pictus Honor Book, an ALA Notable book, and an IRA Notable book; Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age, an Orbis Pictus Honor Book, a Bank Street Best Children’s Books selection, and a Junior Library Guild selection; and The Ugly Duckling Dino. She lives in Chicago with her family.

2021 Festival

Mathical Reading: Nothing Stopped Sophie

When her parents took away her candles to keep their young daughter from studying math… nothing stopped Sophie. When a professor discovered that the homework sent to him under a male pen name came from a woman… nothing stopped Sophie. And when she tackled a math problem that male scholars said would be impossible to solve… still, nothing stopped Sophie. Enjoy the energizing story of mathematician Sophie Germain, who became the first woman to win a grand prize from France’s prestigious Academy of Sciences for her formula, which laid the groundwork for much of modern architecture.