Reviewed for VPRC. Great book looking at 15 women in history who invented or discovered something extraordinary that changed the lives of people across the world. From turning plastic into fuel to inventing Scotchguard to protect fabric, this is a fascinating look at how these women saw a need for something to plug a gap and they persevered until they found a solution to fill the hole!
Short paragraphs with brightly coloured quotes and illustrations. ( )

This book is a great read that talks about the ingenious inventions made by women including cancer-fighting drugs, space helmets, coffeemaker filters, disposable diapers, games, toys, computer programs, and many more. This book provides a great representation towards younger girls as it represents women in STEM and a great diverse group of women from all over the world. This book seems to be correlated towards middle grade students, specifically middle grade girls, as it serves as a representation towards women young girls can be inspired by or look up to. It also seems to be divided among chapters as it focuses on certain challenging problems that inspire women to create ingenious solutions. The book starts off with physician, Dr. Virginia Apgar, who developed the Newborn Scoring System which determines and measures 5 aspects of a baby’s health such as color, pulse, reflex, respiration, and activity. Because of her innovation, hundreds of babies’ lives are saved till this day. I really like the representation and inspiration that this book provides towards younger girls as it gives them hope that they aspire to be women who also create solutions. This book can be correlated towards science as it provides inventions correlated to the scientific method, it can be correlated to history due to the historical impact that women had on history, and it can be correlated to math towards critical thinking skills. ( )

This book was pretty sweet! The book showcases the great diversity of women inventors. Each chapter in the book focuses on a problem that needs fixing and the mids of the brilliant women who fixed them. There is an older version of this book which is great too, but this one offered even more diversity with more women of color and women from different parts of the world. It would be great for math to encourage critical thinking skills that are needed to solve problems. Great for science and experimenting to find idea that work, great for History to learn about women who have changed the world.

I love this book because it captures the great minds of women who are incredibly creative. We need more people like in this world, and not only women. ( )

This book was about women in history who invented things.

This book offers 12 brief partial biographies of women that invented something. The most interesting story to me was the story of the 'accidental' invention of the Tollhouse Chocolate Chip cookie by Ruth Wakefield in 1930 while baking at her Toll House Inn. It's probably because I love chocolate chip cookies. Another interesting story is about how Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid Paper so she wouldn't have to retype a letter because she made a mistake.

Summary:This book is really just a giant list of all of the many things that women have accomplished or created. I feel as though this book was written to show the world what women are capable of.
Personal Reaction: I really enjoyed reading this book. I learned a lot about the many roles that women have played.
Classroom Extensions:
1. In the classroom, we could discuss how many more things we can think of that women have done for us as not just a country, but the entire world.
2. We could talk about what in the book we are most thankful for having.

Love books about female inventors, and this is a book all about that! It is important we show young girls that they have every place in the STEM field and boys. ( )

Not only did I love this book because it's all about how girls can be a part of the STEM portion of the world, but also because it gives empowerment and recognition to the women who have changed the world with their brilliant minds. It also gives really awesome explanations of how each woman went from having an idea to making it a reality and what inspired them to do so. Super inspirational book for young girls who love science! ( )

Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women

A great book that focuses on the inventions of women. This book is nice to have in your classroom library to encourage seeing women as scientists and inventors as well.

This is a book about women history, and the fact that not only men have contributed to the amazing things that have happened in history. It is a pretty lengthy book, but it is divided into sections, so it can be divided up and read into several days worth of reading! ( )

Girls Think of Everything by Catherine Thimmesh So I may have mentioned before that I love a good anthology, particularly of the contributions of women in history. The point is not that men haven't done great things that we deserve learning about but that they aren't the only ones who have. Despite hardship and opposition, women have invented lots of things, some that we couldn't live without today and others that are so common, I didn't even realize that it used to be a problem. 
 
This book takes just about an hour to listen to. It has some women I was already familiar with (like my hero, Admiral Grace Hopper) and others that were new (Margaret Knight invented the machine that makes paper grocery bags, they had to be made by hand and were expensive before that). 
 
If you want to see some more great anthologies of women making history, I have a shelf dedicated to them.  ( )

Usually I find non-fiction for children dry. Not this one! Illustrations were little works of art, and stories were compelling. I haven't checked accuracy, but the research seems thorough and the bibliography and appendices are of value. Endpaper notes have lots more inventions that didn't get stories. Teachers could readily have children do one of two projects - 1. verify a story or 2. write a story about one of the other inventions. Best for ages 8 up. ( )

great inventors ( )

Excellent conversational storytelling that basically tells girls "yes, you can." It's an important message and demonstrates that women have been contributing to society as leaders and inventors all along--often in spite of a lack of recognition or remuneration--and some of them got rich, too.

Including improvements in NASA space technology and the creation of Kevlar, white out, and the Barbie Doll, this engaging book highlights women and girls' creativity and resourcefulness to solve everyday problems and create enduring innovations. By featuring many well-known inventions by less-sung female inventors, this book expands young readers' knowledge of women's contributions to many fields, including industry, medicine, technology, leisure, childcare, and more. The text also acknowledges young girl inventors, such as ten-year-old Jeanie Low, inventor of the Kiddie Stool in 1992. Illustrations in mixed-media collage by award-winning artist Melissa Sweet add vibrancy and spirit to the text. Readers will be drawn in by Sweet's imaginative portraits of the book's subjects, then amazed by the feats of these women and girls. For a wider representation of women's achievements and diversity in age and background, educators and librarians can use this book to expand lessons on women's history, as well as the book's extensive citations and resources lists. ( )

This book contains brief and informational descriptions as well as pictures and collages of 12 women and their inventions. It shows the ingenious of women and often the difficulties they faced while developing their ideas. I thought this book could be very empowering for young inventors, especially for young girls. There is even a short description at the end about the importance of patenting and how to do it. ( )

A lot of interesting inventions by women over the last centuries. This book could encourage pupils to think creatively and show that women has contributed a lot in our current life-style. ( )

I am always trying to find books that also highlight the contributions of women to our history. This is one such book. Some of the inventions highlighted include: chocolate cookies, windshield wipers,kevlar that goes inside bullet-proof vests, liquid paper, scotch guard, paper bags and more! Nice illustrations and pull quotes. ( )

This is a book about the the different stories of igenious inventions by women. this book shows that women invented things such as, wind shield wipers, school desks, medical syringes, washmitt, and chocolate chip cookies. This book does not have many pictures in it and it full of text. I think that it wouldn't hold someone's attention for a long time unless this book was specifically read to research one of the female inventors. It gets boring after a while although it was intersting. ( )

The book was really good. Since my subject matter is science I wouldn’t use it in my class. I would suggest its use in seminar for girls to help build up their self-esteem. The book tells you about many inventions and ideas that women have come up with. The illustrations are also very good and keep you interested in the book. ( )

This book gives the story of 12 women / girl inventors and their inventions that changed the world. From chocolate chip cookes to Kevlar, this book can inspire boys and girls alike to think like an inventor - to ask questions and think outside the box. It is very informative but also gives a good look into the how and why of these inventions. ( )

Women try the darnedest things, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes out of curiosity, sometimes out of sheer determination to make something better.What was even more interesting to me in this book which is illustrated to appeal to women and girls with headings and sidebars lettered in pink -was how various are the amounts and worth with which women's efforts are rewarded commercially!Ever noticed that Toll-House chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag? Read this book and you'll learn how it got there and what Ruth Wakefield received for selling the right to reprint her recipe. Guess how much Margaret Knight the inventor of the machine that made the first flat bottomed paper bags was worth when she died? Ever turned on your windshield wipers in a rainstorm? Mary Anderson designed the first windshield wipers but couldn't sell her invention to men. We read in Girls Think of Everything that the patent for the worthless device expired. This is the weakest bio in the book -we never learn how long she held the patent before it expired(only 17 years) or whether she made any money off it (it is implied that she didn't but that's probably not true). Even still, You'll find the answers to the questions above and more in [b:Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women|13460|Girls Think of Everything Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women|Catherine Thimmesh|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298656829s/13460.jpg|15610] which is a visual feast for a book of its type! ( )

Highlighting 20 female inventors from the 20th century, Catherine Thimmesh provides biographical information for each of the selected women as well as a description of her inventive process and some of the inventor's advice for others. The last two women to be so honored were children at the time of their inventions and the book concludes with the words "Now its you're turn!" followed by the postal address of the U.S. Patent Office. Obviously meant to be inspirational and catalytic for young, scientifically-minded girls, the book does a good-to-middling job of being interesting but is excellent in terms of its informative content. Complete with index, time line of significant women inventors, and list of resources for budding inventors, this book is the go-to reference on the topic for this age range.

Furthermore, the playful collage illustrations reinforce the message of creating new things from disparate elements and provide a delightful alternative to more realistic artistic styles. Recommended for grades 5-7. ( )

What do chocolate chip cookies, windshield wipers, Liquid Paper, and flat-bottomed paper bags all have in common? They were all invented by women. This book gives a fascinating glimpse into some of the many products that were invented by women. Each entry is 2-4 pages long and accompanied by neat collage-ish illustrations. The brief entries keep things interesting and source notes and further reading suggestions are included at the end. The endpapers include lists of other inventions by women, organized by year. A surefire hit for women's history month or any inventive young girls. ( )