Descriptions, Reviews, etc.
Description:
Dr. James Naismith was a Canadian-American sports coach and innovator. He invented the sport of basketball in 1891 and is often credited with introducing the first football helmet. He wrote the original basketball rulebook, founded the University of Kansas basketball program, and lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of both the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (1939).
Review Quotes: Books in the Genius Inventors and Their Great Ideas series offer colorful, accessible introductions to individual American inventors. Each book features five chapters of text, laid out in wide-spaced lines of fairly large type. Illustrations include contemporary color photos as well as period photos of the inventor from childhood through adulthood. In each book, the back matter has an identical, chapter-length section of advice and encouragement called "You Be the Inventor." Ferris Wheel introduces George Ferris, the engineer who designed and built the original ride for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. In Laser, Ted Maiman builds on his childhood interest in electricity when he grows up to invent the first laser. Thread That Stops Bullets relates the story of chemist Stephanie Kwolek, who set out to create fibers stronger than steel and became the inventor of Kevlar. While older students will crave more information, books in the series do serve a practical purpose, presenting a simple account of the inventor's life and work in an attractive format. Some libraries may have volumes on the same subjects from an earlier version of the series, Genius at Work! Great Inventor Biographies. There are updates on the time line and bibliography pages. Caution: although the authors are the same, the books have been retitled., Booklist December 15, 2013
