They Saw the Future : Oracles, Psychics, Scientists, Great Thinkers, and Pretty Good Guessers - Hardcover

Krull, Kathleen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689812957 ISBN 13: 9780689812958

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1999

Synopsis

Can anyone predict the future?
Meet twelve mind-boggling personalities who seemed to know how. Among them are:
The ancient Maya, who invented a remarkably accurate calendar that gave a date for the end of the world: December 21, 2012.
Leonardo da Vinci, the great artist, who drew detailed sketches of tanks, machine guns, and helicopters...four centuries before they were invented.
Nostradumus, the sixteenth-century French doctor whose amazing predictions included the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Jeane Dixon, a wealthy socialite who, on November 22, 1963, looked into her lunch of eggs florentine and announced, "Something dreadful is going to happen to the president today."
Did they always get it right? How did they know? Were they psychic? Or did they simply combine knowledge, sensitivity, inspiration, and some good old-fashioned luck to see into the unknown? Kathleen Krull and Kyrsten Brooker's entertaining and enlightening book may just hold the answers to these and other fascinating questions.

About this title

Review

Is there anyone who can suppress even the tiniest prickle of wonder when hearing of a prediction come true? Anyone whose ears do not perk up when the horoscope is read? Behind a sophisticated sniff of disapproval over psychic hotlines, isn't there just a tinge of curiosity? The idea that someone may be able to predict the future is at once terrifying and thrilling. Since the beginning of time, kings, colonizers, and commoners have sought the wisdom of special people who claimed to see into the future. Astrologers, oracles, numerologists, scientists, writers, artists, healers... are they true prophets or just astute observers of human nature? This fascinating book explores the lives of 12 visionaries, from 700 B.C. to the present, including Hildegard, Black Elk, Nostradamus, Jules Verne, and Jeane Dixon. Offering just a few tantalizing tidbits about each, award-winning author Kathleen Krull asks more questions than she answers. What is to be made of these predictions, when a portion are eerily correct, others close but not quite accurate, and the rest wildly untrue? Readers of all ages will devour this rich, gorgeously illustrated book and its provocative hints at powers beyond this world. (Ages 10 to 14) --Emilie Coulter

From the Author

Kyrsten Brooker's wonderful books for children include Runaway Dreidel! by Lesléa Newman, They Saw the Future by Kathleen Krull, and Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street by Roni Schotter. She lives in Alberta, Canada.

Kathleen Krull is the author of No Truth Without Ruth: The Life of Ruth Bader, as well as A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull; Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought); The Only Woman in the Photo; and other acclaimed biographies for young readers. She lives in San Diego, California. Visit her website at KathleenKrull.com.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0689812957
• ISBN 13: 9780689812958
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 112
• Illustrator: Brooker Kyrsten