people biographies · Ages 6-8

Stephen Hawking Would Not Let His Chair Hold His Questions

Stephen Hawking lived with a body that moved less over time, but his mind kept exploring black holes and the beginning of the universe.

The whole story

1. One bright morning, Stephen Hawking sat beside a desk in Cambridge. His chair could carry his body, but it could not carry his questions.

2. He wondered about black holes. Could anything escape them, even light?

3. His body became harder to move. His questions did not become smaller.

4. When his hands could no longer write easily, he found another way to speak.

5. A computer listened to a tiny movement in his cheek. Stephen chose words, one careful word at a time.

6. Soon, his ideas traveled through lecture halls and books. People leaned close to hear what the universe was saying.

7. He kept asking: What happens inside a black hole? How did the universe begin?

8. Children asked him big questions. Stephen smiled, because big questions are good places to begin.

9. Stephen's chair had limits. His curiosity did not.

10. Stephen Hawking lived with a body that moved less over time, but his mind kept exploring black holes and the beginning of the universe.

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