Customer Reviews

Henry Ford: Building Cars for Everyone (Historical American Biographies)

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My son requested this book for a book report that he's doing on a famous American. Although the book is listed for ages 9-12, it's really more appropriate for 12 and above. My son found it difficult to stay interested in this book as it's not written in a format that keeps a 9-year-old intrigued. My son is an excellent reader, so being unable to read wasn't the problem. The book gives almost too much detail about incidents and experiences in Henry Ford's life. Short and sweet might have worked better if this book is being marketed for the 9-12 age group.

In this biography Henry Ford is born in Dearborn, Michigan in 1863. Henry at the age of twelve starts to build watches. His father notices his talent and sets up Henry for a job at the Flowers Brothers Machine Shop. Later in 1896 Henry finished building a Quadricycle in his garage. Henry and his friend Jim Bishop had worked hard on it for months. Finally, Henry finished it. As he tried to take the car out of his he relized it wouldn't fit. So he took an object and smashed the brick garage so the car could come it. It was pouring rain. Later in 1908 he created the first Model T and sold it for $850. Then he dropped the price to $575 dollars without the assembly line. Then when he used the assembly line to make the first car start to finish on the assembly line the priced dropped again to $290. It stayed that way until 1927.
I give Henry Ford: Building Cars for Everyone a ranking of 8 out 10. I really liked the book because it had facts that I could not find anywhere else. It says on page 14 "His mother did of complications after childbirth." That was one example of a fact that I could not find anywhere else. Another is, on page 27 "Ford was thrilled to meet Thomas A. Edison, who was duly impressed when someone told him about the gasoline powered car." I could not find a piece of information as detailed as that anywhere else.
Somethings I didn't like was it didn't go into detail on some of his other achievements beside Model T and the assembly line.
I recommend this book for people who are interested in cars or Henry Ford. They would like this book because it talks about his greatest achievement and was easy to read.