Peter Sis is probably best known for his Madlenka series, which I believe, have even been made into a few Sesame Street shorts. But in my view, his prowess in producing these intricate and pretty pictures are well used in two of his books that focus specifically on the life and times of two prominent scientists.
One of these, The Tree of Life is an illustrated children's biography of Charles Darwin and is just such a beautiful thing to behold that some colleagues of mine appreciate it more as a keepsake wth coffee table status (usually not a rank that is easy to come by for scientific tomes, at least not one that visitors will actually become engrossed with).
It starts: "Charles Darwin opens his eyes for the first time! He has no idea that he will (a) start a revolution when he grows up, (b) sail around the world on a five-year voyage, (c) spend many years studying nature, and (d) write a book that will change the world". And then from there, there is a surprisingly detail account of his life and, in particular, the path that led to his magnum opus. The detail, of course, is provided primarily in the graphics which themselves are chock a block full of hidden insights, text, symbols, and trivia.
In his own right, he seems to be an interesting fellow, owing his place in children's lit glory partly to the likes of Maurice Sendak and Bob Dylan:
In 1982, Sis was sent by the Czech government to Los Angeles to film preparations for the 1984 Olympic Games. When the Soviet Union and its satellite countries pulled out, Sis was ordered by his government to return home. But he was in the middle of an extracurricular assignment -- helping with a video for Bob Dylan -- and didn't want to leave. By the time it was completed, Sis had overstayed his visa and gotten in trouble at home. He decided to seek asylum in the United States and eventually became a naturalized American citizen.
Anyway, check the below flash animation on The Tree of Life, or better yet, go see it in full size on his website (http://www.petersis.com/content/tree_ex.html).
