Resources

 Here are some books that can help you and your children start inventing:  

Electric Mischief: Battery-Powered Gadgets Kids Can Build by Alan Bartholomew

Ever had an itch you can’t scratch or had to eat your dinner during a blackout? Now you can tackle these pesky problems with your own electric backscratcher or illuminated fork! With lots of ideas that build on the basics, this book will make you a gizmo wiz.

Put a Fan in Your Hat! Inventions, Contraptions, & Gadgets Kids Can Build by Robert Carrow

Besides providing 12 ultra-neat projects such as a battery-operated, air-conditioned hat to keep them cool in the summer, this book encourages children to invent their own contraptions.

Kids Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors by Susan Casey

You'll meet inspiring kids just like you who designed their own award-winning inventions. Discover how exciting it can be to rethink the world around you, solve problems, and surprise and delight others with the results. Anything's possible with Kids Inventing!

The Kids’ Invention Book by Arlene Erlbach

The stories of twelve kid inventors. Erlbach uses the success of 15-year-old Chester Greenwood, who invented earmuffs in 1873, as the takeoff point for introducing more than a dozen contemporary children who have created their own inventions. Each double-page spread profiles one child and his or her invention, some of which have won national recognition in inventors’ contests.

Mistakes that Worked: 40 Familiar Inventions and How They Came to Be by Charlotte Foltz Jones 

Presents the stories behind forty things that were invented or named by accident, including aspirin, X-rays, frisbees, silly putty, and velcro.

Margaret Knight: Girl Inventor by Marlene Targ Brill, Joanne Friar

Knight was interested in how things worked and in building and inventing. This picture book tells the story of how she came up with the idea to make a safer loom at age 12.

Popular Mechanics for Kids: Make Amazing Toy and Game Gadgets by Amy Pinchuk 

Children learn how to build five toys and games by using inexpensive, easy to find tools. Provides easy-to-follow instructions for creating a light box, blinking jewelry, spy camera, and other electric gadgets. With the depth and accuracy you expect from Popular Mechanics for Kids, this lively activity book is any budding engineer's delight!

So You Want to Be An Inventor? by Judith St. George, David Small

Are you a kid who likes to tinker with machines that clink and clank, levers that pull, bells that ring, cogs that grind, switches that turn on and off, wires that vibrate, dials that spin? You maybe inspired by what other inventors have accomplished.

Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women by Catherine Thimmesh

Tells the story of how women throughout the ages have responded to situations confronting them in daily life by inventing such items as correction fluid, space helmets, and disposable diapers.

Brainstorm!: The Stories of Twenty American Kid Inventors by Tom Tucker

Tom Tucker reveals some of the amazing inventions of the past and present that have come from young Americans, ages eight to 19. The achievements of some of the kid inventors gathered here were prominent once but have become obscure over time; others are relatively unknown.

The Kid Who Invented the Popsicle: And Other Surprising Stories About Inventions by Don L. Wulffson 

Brief factual stories about how various familiar things were invented, many by accident, from animal crackers to the zipper.