Review of EUREKA!: POEMS ABOUT INVENTORS

Bibliography:

Sidman, Joyce. 2002. Eureka!: Poems about inventors. Illustrated by K. Bennett Chavez. Brookfield, CT: The Millbrook Press. ISBN 0761316655

Review:

Eureka!: Poems about Inventors is a topical collection of poetry focusing on people who have made life easier and/or more enjoyable through their inventions. Joyce Sidman has written sixteen free verse poems that cover the history of inventions, beginning with a prehistoric discovery of clay and ending with the invention of the World Wide Web. As readers travel through time, they are introduced to a variety of inventors, some famous like da Vinci, Gutenberg, and Marie Curie and some less well-known, such as Mary Crosby, the inventor of the bra, and George de Mestral, the inventor of Velcro. The narrative verses creatively reveal the reasoning behind each invention. For instance, readers learn that Ts’ai Lun developed paper because the Queen of China wanted to write “yet silk is costly (and) there is never enough.” Sidman has included information on the inventors at the end of each section for those who want to learn more. She maintains readers’ interest by writing the poetry from varying view points. Some, such as “Food of the Gods”, are written in third person describing the events from afar. While others are told from the inventors point of view as seen in “The Light! – Ah! The Light”, a poem about Marie Curie. Mirroring the voice, illustrator Bennett Chavez varies the point of view of each illustration. For instance, in “Food of the Gods” readers observe the scene of Cortez and Montezuma from afar, but they feel like Josephine Cochrane is peering at them through her dishwasher in “Ode to Spode”. In addition, Chavez has captured the various time periods, so readers have a sense of the passage of time through the book. Eureka!: Poems about Inventors is a perfect introduction to a Science unit or to a unit on inventors. Children 12 and up will appreciate that “Necessity is the mother of invention.”, and they will be motivated to learn more about the many inventors who have changed the world, and, perhaps, to create their own inventions.