Bill Gates (Up Close) - Hardcover

Aronson, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670063487 ISBN 13: 9780670063482

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2008

Synopsis

Bill Gates is many things: the richest person in the world; the ruthless businessman who co-founded Microsoft and led it to domination of the computer software industry; and now, the leading global philanthropist. When Gates was born in 1955, no one in the world owned a personal computer. A window had a pane of glass. A mouse was a rodent. As a teenager, Gates realized how computers were about to change the world, and made his fortune by riding that wave; modern teens look to him as their model of how technology can be turned into wealth. Marc Aronson’s biography is a probing portrait of a man whose name is a household word.

About this title

About the Author

Marc Aronson is the author of a wide variety of non-fiction titles. He is the recipient of the LMP Award forediting, as well as the 2006 ALAN Award for outstandingcontributions to the field of adolescent literature.

Reviews

*Starred Review* For young people who wonder how Bill Gates became so wealthy so quickly, this biography opens chapters with (sometimes-wry) entrepreneurial principles, such as “Pick the Right Parents (or If You Can’t, Learn to Be Intensely Competitive).” However, the book offers far more than business tips. It takes readers back in time, not just to Bill’s childhood years in the Gates household, where intense competition was a way of life, but also to the period when personal computers were so new that a cocky teen who knew his stuff could bluff his way into important contracts as long as he had the know-how and determination to follow through. Though often critical of Gates’ business practices, Aronson acknowledges that the man’s most unsympathetic traits may have made his achievements possible. One of the most astute sections of the book analyzes Gates’ recent turn toward philanthropy and compares him with nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century monopolists turned philanthropists. Black-and-white photos illustrate the text. An author’s note, source notes, and lists of books, articles, and Web sites are appended. Well researched, thought-provoking, and up-to-date, this biography from the Up Close series offers insights into Gates’ character as well as an engaging account of his life. Grades 6-10. --Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670063487
• ISBN 13: 9780670063482
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192