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:	9781466852211
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	10/08/2013
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
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.

I was born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1939, but grew up in Garden City, New York. My father was a writer/producer of network radio shows, and my mother had been an actress and singer. Noticing that I was trying to draw people and objects, my mother once said to me, "Why don't you practice that and get it right?" She saw a talent to be developed so that I could support myself when I grew up.

As a child, I doodled and sketched and created my own stories, binding them into books. As class artist in school, I designed posters, backdrops, and programs for concerts and plays. I often visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and sketched people sitting on benches in Union Square. The city fueled my ambitions for an active life in the arts, theater, and publishing.

I attended Pembroke College (now part of Brown University), majoring in art history and acting in plays. I also collaborated on an award-winning musical. For years, people stood around me as I drew, marveling that I could reproduce someone or something. If art was a performance, I wanted to try out other roles.

After graduation, I worked as a mat cutter in an advertising agency and earned an M.A. in art history at Columbia University. Realizing I had no future in the advertising agency, I put together a portfolio of drawings and took it around to art directors. Gradually, jobs trickled in, mostly for book covers. Finally, an editor at Harper&Row Junior Books spotted a poster I had done that featured children. I received my first book illustration assignment, which led to another, and so on.

Meanwhile, I wrote fiction and published a short story that was selected for the O. Henry Collection. It was followed by two novels. I was able to try acting again when the chance arose to audition for a friend's play. It opened in Albany and moved to Off Broadway in New York. It was a wonderful experience, but I knew I had to go back to books. I have now written or illustrated more than two hundred books for children.

My advice for aspiring artists and writers is this: You can't aim to please other people. Do what matters most to you, then hope readers respond.

I believe that books, rather than be palliative or merely instructive, should stir the imagination. I share Isaac Bashevis Singer's belief that children's books are the last refuge of storytelling.

Emily Arnold McCully divides her time between New York City and upstate New York. She has won many awards for her children's books, including the Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the High Wire.

Editorial Reviews

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

This is the story of a young girl gifted with an engineer's mind. From an early age, "Mattie" Knight begins sketching ideas into a notebook she labels "My Inventions." Her brothers call the sketches "brainstorms." For her brothers, Mattie makes toys with moving parts; for her mother, a poor widow, Mattie makes a foot warmer. Then she builds a kite so well designed that it soars high above the kites of the boys in town. They refuse to believe Mattie designed it, declaring, "A girl couldn't make that!" This is an echo Knight will hear throughout her career as an inventor. Knight's most famous invention is a machine that produces square-bottom paper grocery bags. This design is such a good idea, it is stolen! Though it takes all of her savings, Knight takes the thief to court. The thief declares, "Miss Knight could not possibly understand the mechanical complexities of the machine." But she proves him wrong, showing the judge the "brainstorms" she sketched in her notebook for two years. Winning the case, Knight becomes the first woman in U.S. history to obtain a patent. Readers will enjoy the conflict of this tale. The watercolor illustrations and design sketches nicely compliment the dialogue-filled text. 2006, Farrar Straus and Giroux, Ages 9 to 12.
—Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt

Children's Literature

If necessity is the mother of invention, Margaret E. Knight might be called the mother of American inventors. Caldecott medalist Emily Arnold McCully celebrates Knight's intelligence, skill and persistence in Marvelous Mattie. This lively piece of historical fiction traces Knight's interest in things considered boyish in the 19th century and beyond the scope of the female brain. With her sketchbook and father's toolbox, Knight designed and built better jumping-jack toys, kites and sleds. When she went to work at age 12 in a Massachusetts textile mill, she invented a metal shuttle guard to help protect workers from injury. Even with 22 patents to her name, Knight is best remembered for her invention of a machine to make flat-bottomed paper bags. The latter part of the picture book focuses on a watershed moment in the career Knight forged for herself. When a man stole and patented her idea, Knight took him to court and proved her ownership with her sketchbook and a friend's testimony as to her hard work late into the night for two years. Knight then started her own paper bag-making business and, as a professional inventor, was dubbed `the Lady Edison." A marvelous book about an extraordinary woman.

Children's Literature - Mary Quattlebaum

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

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.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“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.” —The Horn Book, starred review

“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.” —The 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