Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor

by Emily Arnold McCully

Overview

With her sketchbook labeled My Inventions and her father's toolbox, Mattie could make almost anything – toys, sleds, and a foot warmer. When she was just twelve years old, Mattie designed a metal guard to prevent shuttles from shooting off textile looms and injuring workers. As an adult, Mattie invented the machine that makes the square-bottom paper bags we still use today. However, in court, a man claimed the invention was his, stating that she "could not possibly understand the mechanical complexities." Marvelous Mattie proved him wrong, and over the course of her life earned the title of "the Lady Edison."

With charming pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations, this introduction to one of the most prolific female inventors will leave readers inspired.

Marvelous Mattie is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374348106
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	02/21/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	387,407
Product dimensions:	9.38(w) x 11.31(h) x 0.31(d)
Lexile:	AD720L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 11 Years

About the Author

EMILY ARNOLD MCCULLY, a Caldecott Medalist, has written and illustrated over fifty children's books, including Squirrel and
John Muir, which received the Giverny Award for best science picture book. She divides her time between New York City and upstate New York.

Editorial Reviews

Engagingly presented.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Caldecott Medalist McCully's lucid narrative and crisp period illustrations illuminate the early life of an impressive visionary.” —Starred, Publishers Weekly

“Told in a style that is not only easy to understand, but that is also a good read-aloud. . . .will inspire interest in women and children as inventors.” —School Library Journal

“Not only is Mattie Knight's life marvelously inventive, but her story is as well.” —Starred, The Horn Book

“It's a beautiful looking book.” —Kirkus Reviews

“McCully draws children into Knight's life by emphasizing. . . her resolute stance against the restrictive gender roles of her time. Watercolor scenes invoke the drama.” —Booklist

“Successfully conveys the drama of Knight's life and her focused intensity.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

“Invites kids to think about the history of women and scientific innovation.” —Washington Post Book World

“Girls are sure to love 'Marvelous Mattie' for its real-life spunky heroine . . . But boys and girls alike will love it for its celebration of curiosity and persistence—and the joy that comes from following your heart.” —The Christian Science Monitor

From the Publisher

Caldecott Medalist McCully's (Mirette on the High Wire) lucid narrative and crisp period illustrations illuminate the early life of an impressive visionary. Born in 1838, young Mattie is inspired by the treasured toolbox she inherited from her father: "When she thought of things that could be made with the tools, she drew them in a notebook labeled My Inventions." The gifted girl's first inventions-a foot warmer, a bat-shaped kite, snow sleds-will certainly intrigue readers, who will find that sketches McCully recreates in panels at the bottom of the pages offer welcome insight into Mattie's creative process. Working in a textile mill at the age of 12, the girl witnesses a runaway shuttle loosened from a loom that injures a peer, and consequently Mattie invents a safety device that later would be installed on looms in all the local mills. After that, she invents a machine that makes the first flat-bottomed paper grocery bags and successfully argues her case in court after a machine-shop worker steals the plans and files a patent for the invention. Mattie went on to establish the Eastern Paper Bag Company and remained a "professional inventor for the rest of her life." In a concluding note, the author emphasizes Knight's remarkable accomplishments and persistence during an era in which many believed "that women's brains were inadequate for inventing." This edifying story may well motivate youngsters to explore their own creativity. Ages 7-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 3-This story of the first woman to receive a U.S. patent makes an excellent introduction to inventors and Women's History Month. Knight used tools inherited from her father to design and build her inventions. As a child, she was always sketching one of her "brainstorms" for toys and kites for her brothers. She once designed a foot warmer for her mother. Although it was never patented, Knight's design for a safer loom saved textile workers from injuries and death. Later as an adult, she fought in court and won the right to patent her most famous invention, a machine that would make paper bags. Mattie's story is told in a style that is not only easy to understand, but that is also a good read-aloud. The watercolor-and-ink illustrations capture the spirited inventor and support the text in style and design. Their sketchy quality works well with the pen-and-ink drawings of inventions at the bottom of the pages. While most of these are simulated, the actual drawings from the 1871 patent for the paper-bag machine are included. The text has some fictional dialogue that makes Mattie more real to young readers without compromising the facts. An author's note gives additional biographical information about this creative woman. This is not the best source for reports, but it will inspire interest in women and children as inventors. It's a good reminder that nonfiction isn't just for reports. It pairs nicely with Marlene Targ Brill's Margaret Knight: a Girl Inventor (Millbrook, 2001).-Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

A fictionalized biography introduces children to an enterprising 19th-century mill girl who invented, among other things, a machine to make square-bottomed brown-paper bags. McCully presents in Mattie Knight the very quintessence of Yankee ingenuity, a mechanical girl who makes an improved sled and sells them to the local children. At 12, in Manchester, N.H., she invents a device to prevent shuttles from flying dangerously off the looms, and she never looks back. Mattie's stick-to-itiveness carries her through years of painstaking work and a threat to her patent rights as she makes her way as a woman inventor and entrepreneur. From the lovingly painted redbrick mills to the panels at the bottom of the pages that show Mattie's sketches as she moves through life (including a facsimile of her actual patent drawings), it's a beautiful looking book. The storytelling, however, falls short of the illustrations, clumsily rendered invented dialogue dragging the text down. As a portrait of a little-known independent woman, however, it deserves attention, though it is a pity that the bibliography doesn't point readers to such child-oriented works as Girls Think of Everything by Catherine Thimmesh (2000). (Picture book. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews