100 Things to Know About Inventions is by Clive Gifford and illustrated by Yiffy Gu. This title was published by Happy Yak, a children’s imprint of Quarto, this fall on September 21, 2021 and is geared towards ages six through twelve. I viewed an ARC eBook copy from NetGalley. The book opens with a full list of contents of the inventions to be covered. I love how the introduction mentions that “some inventions come in a sudden flash of inspiration, while others take many years of struggle to make them work. Many inventions do not succeed, but when they do they have the potential to transform the way many people live.” The illustrations cover the top two thirds of each page with simple and bright drawings that lean heavily on geometric shapes and are visually appealing. The bottom third of each page has the name of the invention with a paragraph of information about it. Thus, the book does not go into great depth with each item, but it does pull in a handful of key detailed facts about each item to give a good introduction. This could be a good way to introduce a curious reader or a science class to a number of inventions and then pick one that’s not featured or pick one that is to learn more about. Items range from familiar favorites such as Lego blocks to more archaic like the plow to recent like 3D printing. It is notable that the author tries to pull in other cultural influences to the inventions. For example, when discussing chocolate drinks that spread through Europe, it is shared that “American civilizations like the Incas, Maya, and Aztecs, made a dark, bitter drink from the beans, mixed with spices and even chilis” and some Spanish individuals returned to Spain with cacao beans. The Author’s Note in the back has some questions that could be great for discussions like what had impact or what surprised the reader. It also encourages the reader to try their own hand at inventing something. There’s then a Young Inventors section with five examples of young people who invented something. That is followed by a Timeline of the inventions covered, which could definitely be helpful to youth in seeing how these items may be close together or farther apart. There is then a Glossary, Index, and a Find Out More section with some books and websites.
I am not completely sure on how the inventions are organized. Some of the ordering appears to be thematic (i.e. skates after wheel, traffic lights after car, and rocket after jet), but some of the ordering appears to be random. I think for many readers this book will be more browsable, so I do not see this being a hindrance to readers. Website resources in the back of the book are:
Some other resources that could supplement would be:
This book could be a great jumping off point to go into a hands on makerspace activity with an inventive challenge in a public library, school library, classroom, or even at home. It could also lead to conversations or research about youth inventors. It could also be used as a segue to feature books that focus on individual inventors or inventions, which every library collection has, or to do some research in a classroom to learn even more about one of those inventions that sparked interest or an invention not mentioned. The sparseness of text and range of inventions will make this text approachable and high interest to most youth. I appreciate that the facts that were chosen were very detailed and intentional. With this being a launching pad for topics, the push for STEM and design thinking, and browsability of this text that will appeal to a range of readers, I will certainly be planning to purchase this.
2 Comments
Kate Blakely
11/14/2021 12:25:31 pm
I find the cover of this book to be a bit too much for me, it's over-stimulating and cluttered to my brain. I was glad to see the inside pages were more streamlined and simple and not so visually cluttered.
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Whitley Abell
11/16/2021 12:14:13 pm
I love how the introduction mentions that many inventions end up failing. This was something I kept trying to impress on my kids when I did Novel Engineering -- that your prototype might not work and that's okay, it's all about trial and error.
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