Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became An Inventor, by Emily Arnold McCully
As a child, Mattie Knight loved to play with tools and invent toys and other useful devices for her brothers and widowed mother. Her mechanical abilities and perseverance also led to other inventions most notably a machine to produce square-bottomed paper bags. The story underscores the difficulties the inventor faced as a woman as well as her ingenuity and perseverance. Watercolor illustrations and small sketches of many of the inventions further illuminate the text.
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This is a great story to illustrate that girls can do things traditionally thought of as "boy" activities. Mattie is a marvelous character. She invents things because it's what she loves to do. One of her inventions was almost stolen just as she was having it patented, but she went to court and was vindicated. This gives the book a happy ending. The watercolor illustrations give the book a nice old fashioned feel. Another book that can be used in middle school with reluctant readers.
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