The Marvelous Thing That Came from a Spring: The Accidental Invention of the Toy That Swept the Nation
by Gilbert Ford
Date: 2016
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book non-fiction
Pages: 40
Format: e-book
Source: library
With magnificent dioramic illustrations, Gilbert Ford captures the joy, creativity, and determination behind the invention of an iconic, one-of-a-kind toy: the Slinky!
One day, a spring fell from the desk of Richard James, an engineer and a dreamer. Its coils took a walk…and so did Richard’s imagination. He knew right away that he had stumbled onto something marvelous.
With the help of his wife, Betty, Richard took this ordinary spring and turned it into a plaything. But it wasn’t just any old trinket—it was a Slinky, and it would become one of the most popular toys in American history.
(synopsis from Goodreads)
Great. Now I have the Slinky song stuck in my head.
This is a fun little biography about 1945's popular toy and the couple who invented it. Richard James came up with the idea after seeing a torsion spring fall from a shelf, but it was his wife, Betty, who helped turn the idea into a marketable product. (She also apparently saved the floundering business while her husband went off to Bolivia to do missionary work in the 1960s.)
The pictures in this book are interesting to look at. Composed of illustrated cutouts that have been photographed with various objects in a 3D setting, the pictures give the book a really unique aesthetic that's at once both modern and retro.
I enjoyed learning about this toy. Of course, I've heard of the Slinky, and I even had one when I was a kid. But I never really knew how it was discovered or developed. Thanks to this book, now I do.
Quotable moment:
Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5
Overall: 3.83 out of 5
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