Calling All Minds: How to Think and Create Like an Inventor
By Lucinda Dyer,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Fun hands-on projects, inspiration for different thinkers.
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What's the Story?
CALLING ALL MINDS is divided into five chapters: "Things Made of Paper," "Levers and Pulleys," "Things Made of Wood," "Things That Fly," and "Optical Illusions." There are detailed step-by-step instructions (with diagrams) for each of the more than 20 projects that range from Handmade Paper, a Puppet Theater with Curtain and a Violin Plant Stand, to a Bird Kite, a Parachute (of the tiny variety), and even a Water Bomb. Each chapter has lively short bios of inventors and the history behind inventions from glue to rubber tires, and even why letters on a keyboard are in such a random order. In the brief Introduction, Grandin writes about her childhood as a "quirky kid" who was teased at school for her lack of social skills and the family who always encouraged her to work with her hands and and explore how things worked.
Is It Any Good?
Fun projects that are certain to inspire kids to put down their phones, pick up scissors, glue, milk cartons, and plywood and actually make things with their own hands. Calling All Minds has a two-fold purpose -- to motivate and encourage -- and strongly delivers on both. Grandin's joy in being able to share these favorite projects from her childhood should make them irresistible to readers. By sharing her personal story, she shows all those kids who don't quite fit the mold at school that being a "different kind of thinker" can mean a whole world of exciting possibilities can open for them.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the challenge that Temple Grandin gives readers of Calling All Minds: Put down your phones and make something! Do you agree that making something with your hands can be a life-changing experience?
Is there something you’re interested in that makes you a little different from other kids at school? Why do you think so many kids who were labeled as "different" growing up go onto do extraordinary things?
What would you invent to make your family's life easier or better?
Book Details
- Author: Temple Grandin
- Genre: Activity
- Topics: STEM, Great Girl Role Models, Science and Nature
- Book type: Non-Fiction
- Publisher: Philomel
- Publication date: May 15, 2018
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 8 - 12
- Number of pages: 219
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: February 4, 2020
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