News & Media
7 Women Who Invent & Innovate
Did you know that the first graphing calculator was built from paper? Or that movies wouldn’t be the same without the little-known accomplishes of women in old Hollywood? Celebrate the achievement and innovation of female inventors with this collection of books perfect for Women’s History Month and beyond.
Josephine and Her Dishwashing Machine by Kate Hannigan, illustrated by Sarah Green
Josephine and Her Dishwashing Machine
Josephine Cochrane's Bright Invention Makes a Splash
Many Americans have a dishwasher in their kitchen. But who invented it?
Meet Josephine Garis Cochrane: entrepreneur, innovator, girlboss. Washing dishes is a pain—it leaves Josephine’s cups cracked, her dishes dinged, and her chowder bowls chipped. She’d rather be picking flowers, frosting cakes, or playing piano than dealing with cracked crockery. What to do about a chore that’s icky, destructive, and time-consuming? Josephine tackles this task the modern way: she makes a machine to do it for her! She tinkers and tests, and perseveres through fizzles and flops—until she has a government patent for her invention, and there are whirring, whizzing, bubbling dishwashers making a splash across America.
The Brillant Calculator: How Mathematician Edith Clarke Helped Electrify America by Jan Lower, illustrated by Susan Reagan
Hidden Figures meets Rosie Revere, Engineer in this STEM/STEAM picture book about Edith Clarke, the innovator who solved an electrical mystery and built the first graphing calculator—from paper!
Long before calculators were invented, little Edith Clarke devoured numbers, conquered calculations, cracked puzzles, and breezed through brainteasers. Edith wanted to be an engineer—to use the numbers she saw all around her to help build America.
Blast Off: How Mary Sherman Morgan Fueled America into Space by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Sally W. Comport
The inspirational story of Mary Sherman, the world’s first female rocket scientist, who overcame gender barriers and many failures to succeed.
Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane by Kirsten W. Larson, illustrated by Tracy Subisak
This riveting nonfiction picture book biography explores both the failures and successes of self-taught engineer Emma Lilian Todd as she tackles one of the greatest challenges of the early 1900s: designing an airplane.
Fearless Flyer: Ruth Law and Her Flying Machine by Heather Lang, illustrated by Raul Colón
Discover a thrilling moment in history when pioneering aviator Ruth Law attempted to do what no other aviator had done before: fly nonstop from Chicago to New York.
The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest by Dianne Ochiltree, illustrated by Kathleen Kemly
This picture book biography tells the story of Meg Lowman, a groundbreaking female scientist called a “real life Lorax” by National Geographic, who was determined to investigate the marvelous, undiscovered world of the rainforest treetops.
Coming Soon:
The Women Who Built Hollywood: 12 Trailblazers in Front of and Behind the Camera by Susan Goldman Rubin
From well-known, glamorous starlets like Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, to under-appreciated trailblazers like Anna May Wong and Hattie McDaniel, acclaimed author Susan Goldman Rubin shows that movies wouldn’t be the same without the women who succeeded against the odds and built Hollywood from the ground up. Filled with fascinating photographs and little-known facts, this rigorously researched book begins with a foreword from a Hollywood insider.
