Thursday 22 April 2021

Review: Kid Innovators by Robin Stevenson

 Moving, funny, and totally true childhood biographies of Bill Gates, Madam C. J. Walker, Hedy Lamarr, Walt Disney, and 12 other international innovators. 


Throughout history people have experimented, invented, and created new ways of doing things. Kid Innovators tells the stories of a diverse group of brilliant thinkers in fields like technology, education, business, science, art, and entertainment, reminding us that every innovator started out as a kid. Florence Nightingale rescued baby mice. Alan Turing was a daydreamer with terrible handwriting. And Alvin Ailey felt like a failure at sports.

Featuring kid-friendly text and full-color illustrations, readers will learn about the young lives of people like Grace HopperSteve JobsReshma Saujani, Jacques Cousteau, the Wright BrothersWilliam KamkwambaElon MuskJonas Salk, and Maria Montessori.


Review: This book was just great. As a teacher I could definitely imagine having this in my classroom or using it as a jumping off point to talk about biography and autobiography or just discuss texts with a layout like this. I thought the language use was appropriate and the length of each section well edited. 

I also really love the fact that this book is written in four different sections dividing the innovators discussed into 'Tech Revolution'; 'Seas, Skies and Outer Space'; 'Cracking Codes And Saving Lives' and 'Trailblazers'. The sections made it easy to navigate for me as a reader and would be great for a younger reader looking for someone in particular they were interested in. I did not read this in a linear way and so I can attest to the ease of using these sections to navigate through the book. 

I think that this book did a good job of picking a diverse range of Innovators to mentions. I love that we have people who were trailblazers in many fields and people who kids would recognise and relate to as well as those who have flown somewhat under the radar. I have had previous experience of sharing a text with children that mentioned Jaques Cousteau that was incredible inaccessible and so to have him mentioned in this book along with pictures and heading alongside fun facts I really enjoyed. 

I do recommend this book and I would love to read more in this series!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US


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