Up Close: Bill Gates »

Marc Aronson is the author of Robert F. Kennedy in the Up Close series. He received the 2006 ALAN Award for outstanding contributions to adolescent literature. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.

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.

Kirkus Reviews

Think you already know everything about Bill Gates? Or that you don't really care to know anything? Either way, Aronson's inventive approach will change your mind. His foreword addresses readers directly, acknowledging the difficulty of creating a biography about such a well-known figure that will appeal to teen readers. His decision to structure the book as a kind of how-to manual-detailing how Gates got so rich and suggesting that similar initiative could pay off for the reader-is inspired, and his conversational style is engaging. This offbeat method of explication allows Aronson to cover both the basics (childhood, family, education, entrepreneurship) and the big picture (what enabled Gates to succeed so spectacularly? what drives him to give away so much of the money he's earned?). Black-and-white photographs, particularly those showing Gates as a young man, will help readers relate, while discussion of the spectacular successes and perceived flaws of both Gates and Microsoft encourages readers to form their own opinions. Well-conceived and totally intriguing, even for technophobes. (notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 12 & up)