From Publishers Weekly
In this edifying volume, Harper (When I Grow Up) explains how such everyday things as gum, skates and potato chips came to be, though she qualifies her research by noting that "creative storytelling and imagination were also used to tell these tales." For instance, piggy banks originated from vessels made of a clay called pygg; Harper speculates, "Some potter probably said,/ after giving it some thought,/ `What if I take my fine pygg clay/ and make a pig-shaped pot?' " High-heeled shoes, which first appeared in 16th-century France, inspire a tall tale about a short king. The vacuum-cleaner's innovator is depicted as a neat freak who tries to inhale dirt from his furniture: "1901 was the year/ that he built his first machine./ It took two men to operate/ but really got things clean." Harper maintains a lighthearted mood by describing each item in doggerel verse. She paints naive portraits of inventors at work, frames each spread with a thematic border and provides trivia about her humble subjects ("The most popular doughnut with kids is the chocolate frosted"). With its crazy-quilt visual patterns, bouncy stanzas and fun facts, this miscellany zigzags between informational and whimsical. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Gr 1-4-Children who are interested in the origins of things will enjoy this whimsical look at how piggy banks, doughnuts, eyeglasses, high-heeled shoes, chewing gum, and more were created. Each of the 14 inventions is covered in a two-page spread. The main text is composed of four-line stanzas that note the date (or time period) of the invention and relate how the idea evolved. The verses are fun and anecdotal, such as the one about the violin-playing inventor of roller skates. "The night of the big party,/with wheeled skates upon his feet,/Joseph glided in while playing/and the crowd said, `Oh, how sweet.'" The busy pages each have a brightly colored background with thematic borders. On the right side of the spread, they list the inventor, place and date of the invention, and interesting facts and statistics about it. Fanciful cartoons are interspersed with the text. For a more conventional approach to the development of common things, Charlotte Foltz Jones's Accidents May Happen (Delacorte, 1996) is a good choice.
Lynda Ritterman, Atco Elementary School, Waterford, NJ
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
