This is a great book for grade school and middle school. It’s very user friendly and besides the achiever mentioned, KATZ has added loads of fun facts and illustrations for kids to color.
It’s a good book to introduce kids to science and math and along with every achiever the author adds important math, slogans, poems, anecdotes from his childhood or about his children, interactive pages and in the center – a medal.
In other words, all the bells and whistles that draw little kids to books can be found in this one.
The premise of the book is the inventors of the last century who did not receive the recognition they so richly deserve for their part in furthering technology we use today.
KATZ starts with Nolan Bushnell. Who is that, you may ask. Ask your dad if he ever played an Atari game. Bushnell was the father of the video game. Steve Jobs learned about technology working for Mr. Bushnell.
Speaking of Steve Jobs – he was the person who called Dag Kittlaus and offered to buy Siri from him. Yes, Siri, the assistant to millions, who offers humorous answers asked by ALAN KATZ such as:
“Siri, can I borrow some money?”
“Alan, you know that everything have is yours.”
“Siri, I think you’re very smart.”
“You can’t tell, but I’m blushing.”
P.S. I never thought I would live in an age where I sometimes confuse Siri and Alexa my two virtual assistants. True story.
We meet Sir Tim Berners Lee, at least he got a knighthood out his invention, which was the World Wide Web, without which, I would not be blogging this and you would not be reading this.
Without Percy Spencer, millions of kids would starve after school because no kid knows how to cook but every kid can stick something in a microwave to warm up. Mr. Spencer was the inventor of the microwave, and as a mother, may I say – I bow down and worship at his shrine daily. His invention is indispensible in my home. In fact, as a family we would be dead without him.
Patsy Sherman ensured that millions of us are not indebted to our parents for ruining expensive couches and other furniture; she invented Scotch guard while she was working at 3M. Fun fact – 3M stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.
Robert Adler launched generations of couch potatoes by inventing the remote control. Maybe not such a great invention because along with the fat around the waist we acquired, married people had a new thing to fight about and until today – men usually win that fight. Unless you hide the batteries, then they lose that fight.
The author includes on awesome person that I think definitely deserves far more recognition that he ever got, this is astronaut extraordinaire Michael Collins. He was the pilot of the command module that took Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin within spitting distance of the moon. Yes, Armstrong and Aldrin actually got to step onto the moon, but if Michael Collins weren’t flying that command module around the moon waiting to pick them up again, they would never have returned to earth to talk about it. The only reason they did make it was because Collins was a superb pilot, and a humble human being to boot.
I really enjoyed the format and the interactive pages for kids; the wording was kept simple, light and funny. All pluses when trying to get little ones to read a book, that’s the author’s ultimate point, to introduce a new generation to the wonderful world of books. Nothing to be sneezed at.
I rate this book a solid 3 stars with a strong recommendation to grade school teachers to request for their students. I hope this becomes the first book of a series.
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