Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women

by Catherine Thimmesh, Melissa Sweet (Illustrator)

Overview

In kitchens and living rooms, in garages and labs and basements, even in converted chicken coops, women and girls have invented ingenious innovations that have made our lives simpler and better. Their creations are some of the most enduring (the windshield wiper) and best loved (the chocolate chip cookie). What inspired these women, and just how did they turn their ideas into realities?

Features women inventors Ruth Wakefield, Mary Anderson, Stephanie Kwolek, Bette Nesmith Graham, Patsy O. Sherman, Ann Moore, Grace Murray Hopper, Margaret E. Knight, Jeanne Lee Crews, and Valerie L. Thomas, as well as young inventors ten-year-old Becky Schroeder and eleven-year-old Alexia Abernathy. Illustrated in vibrant collage by Caldecott Honor artist Melissa Sweet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547350523
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Lexile:	960L (what's this?)
File size:	98 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Catherine Thimmesh is the award-winning author of many books for children, including Girls Think of Everything and Team Moon, winner of the Sibert Medal. Her books have received numerous starred reviews, appeared on best books lists, and won many awards, including the IRA Children's Book Award and Minnesota Book Award. She lives in Minnesota with her family. www.catherinethimmesh.com. 

Melissa Sweet is the Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator of many fine children’s books including Some Writer!: The Story of E. B. White, winner of the NCTE Orbis Pictus award, Balloons Over Broadway, a Sibert winner, and The Right Word and A River of Words, both Caldecott Honors. Reviewers have described her unique mixed-media illustrations as “exuberant,” “outstanding,” and “a creative delight.” Melissa lives on the beautiful coast of Maine. In addition to writing and painting, she enjoys gardening, hiking, biking, and cross-country skiing. For more information about the author and her work, visit her online at melissasweet.net.

Editorial Reviews

Robert's constant anxiety about the new baby is authentic and compelling, and the historical details add appeal. —Gillian Engberg

Booklist ALA

PW called this compilation of personal profiles "an inspired ode to women inventors." Ages 8-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The extremely readable and well-researched text is brimming with direct quotes from the inventors, and is illustrated with plenty of powerful pink and mixed media punch.
—Bookbag Magazine

Esmé Raji Codell

"GIRLS THINK OF EVERYTHING is a wonderful book, as surprising as it is inspiring .... Buy this book for the girl you love today, and she may well become a mother of invention tomorrow." — Pulitzer Prize winner Natalie Angier, author of WOMAN: AN INTIMATE GEOGRAPHY, 1999 National Book Award finalist

BOX "This very attractive, informative book will find an audience among browsers and report writers alike." —Booklist, boxed review (3/15/00) Booklist, ALA, Starred Review

"An outstanding collective biography of women and girls who changed the world with their inventions." —School Library Journal (4/00) School Library Journal

"This book is an inspired ode to women inventors." —Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly —

From the Publisher

Winter 2018

Gr 4–8—This updated edition of the 2000 collective biography showcases greater diversity in its representation of women inventors. Each chapter focuses on challenging problems that spark creative solutions that have changed, or promise to change, the world. Most of the subjects from the original are retained, now balanced with women of color and women from outside the United States. New profiles include Alissa Chavez, a Latinx teen who invented the Hot Seat to prevent infant deaths in hot cars; Azza Abdelhamid Faiad, an Egyptian teen who devised a method of turning recycled plastic into fuel; and Kiara Nirghin, a South African teen who came up with a way to fight drought using the absorbency of orange peels. Thimmesh profiles young inventors who are trying to solve contemporary problems,with creations that rely on modern technology. Many of them raise capital for their projects via crowdfunding, which will likely inspire readers. Expanded resources for aspiring scientists and a time line that emphasizes more recent inventions are welcome changes. Tweaks to the original artwork and additions in the same collage style are fun and creative. In a growing marketplace of works about women transforming the world, this title holds its own. VERDICT Update shelves with this revised version, and add to any library needing more titles about women in STEM.—Alex Graves, Manchester City Library, NH

School Library Journal

Karen Zippler’s delivery is crisp and clearly enunciated. She narrates at a steady clip and is so matter-of-fact and upbeat that she leaves no possibility for listeners to think that solving everyday problems might be a daunting task. When Becky Schroeder needs more light to do her homework in the back seat of the car, Zippler’s tone champions the 10-year-old who eventually invents The Glow Sheet. Zippler projects determination as Stephanie Kwolek pushes her colleagues to work with her in testing a new polymer that becomes Kevlar. Ruth Wakefield’s frustration is clear as she rushes to make cookies only to find that her “mistake” is delicious (Toll House cookies). For each vignette—from baby carrier to windshield wiper, liquid paper, and space bumpers—Zippler’s enthusiasm encourages listeners to tackle being creative with gusto. A.R. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2016 - AudioFile