Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life

by Elizabeth MacLeod, Barbara Spurll (Illustrator)

"One would think that I had never done anything worthwhile but the telephone," complained Alexander Graham Bell. No wonder he was annoyed; Bell invented the phone when he was just 29 and went on to lead a long and inventive life. This biography in the Images of People and Places in History series chronicles the life and many remarkable achievements of Alexander Graham Bell, including his work with the hearing impaired and experiments with flight, iceberg locators and, of course, the telephone.

Genres: History, Biography, Science, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1998

About the author

Elizabeth MacLeod was born on October 21 in Toronto. As a child Liz liked to read Nancy Drew and Anne of Green Gables books, swim, sing, dance, and hang out with her friends. Encouraged by her parents, she began writing stories and poetry for her own enjoyment at the age of 10, her favorite subjects being mad scientists and tyrants who threatened to take over the world.

Today Liz is inspired by almost anything--her friends, reading, and the funny, beautiful world around her. Her first job in publishing was at OWL magazine, and Liz credits editor Sylvia Funston as one of her mentors. Liz also names Valerie Wyatt, a writer and editor, as an important influence on her work, as well as a good friend.

An avid reader, Liz enjoyed digging up amazing facts and researching historic royals and their countries and customs for Royal Murder (2008). She encourages anyone with a desire to write to "just do it." Even if no one ever reads it, the joy that comes from expressing yourself through words is reward enough. Liz adds that writing takes practice, and with each day you are bound to improve.

Liz lives in Toronto with her husband, Paul, and their two cats, Smedley and Cosmo.

She enjoys keeping active, spending time with friends, music, theater, and cheering on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Liz plans to continue writing about a broad spectrum of topics in both fiction and non-fiction, and would like to work on more picture books in the future.

Reviews

[Prabhat sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life by Elizabeth MacLeod, Illustrator Barbara Spurll (goodreads author) Hindi language translation by Arvind Gupta- The book narrates the story of Alexander Graham Bell inventor of telephone and many other inventions. Alexander Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847. He had two brothers: Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell both of whom would die of tuberculosis. To close relatives and friends, he remained "Aleck". Bell's father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to identify any symbol and its accompanying sound. In 1870, the family travelled to Ontario, Canada. By 1874, Bell's initial work on the harmonic telegraph had entered a formative stage, with progress made both at his new Boston "laboratory" and at his family home in Canada a big success. In 1875, Bell developed an acoustic telegraph and drew up a patent application for it. On March 10, 1876, Bell used "the instrument" in Boston to call Thomas Watson who was in another room but out of earshot. On July 11, 1877, a few days after the Bell Telephone Company was established, Bell married Mabel Hubbard. It is a motivating book for readers of all ages. Coloured illustrations help the reader to relate to the story. I have read the Hindi language translation of this book.

[Stephanie Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A non-fiction text about the life and inventions of Alexander Graham Bell. Also included are lesser-known antidotes about Bell's personal life and his interactions with the deaf and blind communities.

Evaluation: This book is a little content-heavy for early grades, but should be an interesting read for older elementary students. Although Bell is most famously known for his invention, the telephone, the book tells the whole story of why Bell was so interested in exploring sound... his mother was hearing impaired. And although the Wright Brothers were the first to put a plane in the air, Bell was hot on their tails and Bell's airplane was the first to fly in Canada. There are a combination of real photographs, illustrations, maps, and a cartoon-style Alexander Graham Bell, which adds commentary and insight into the text.

Teaching Idea: This book is an excellent addition to a text set for the unit on inventors at the turn of the century and how their inventions affect our lives today.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing, all the improvements he made for hearing impairment.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: Read aloud to my son as part of our history curriculum.

Comments: This non-fiction book tells the life story of Alexander Graham Bell, skimming the surface of his private life and concentrating on his life as an inventor. Each "chapter" is a two-page spread with one page of text and both pages profusely illustrated with captioned photographs which both illustrate the text and add more information to the text. Written in an engaging style the text is both informative and interesting to read. My son, who currently wants to be an inventor when he grows up, was of course very interested in the book and enjoyed it very much, as did I. I've promised we will take a trip to Brantford this summer to visit the Bell's first home in Canada. For a brief look at Bell's life you couldn't pick a finer book.

Two things did irk me though. One was the use of AGB, for his name after the initial full spelling. Yes, it gets tiring reading the whole name out for an entire book but I would have preferred variations such as Alexander, Bell, Mr. Bell. I substituted the name "Alexander" most of the time I came across AGB and occasionally said the whole name out loud to remind my son of his correct name as I read aloud. The other thing was that the word "deaf" has been replaced by the words "hearing-impaired" except in the name of associations and schools, etc. Deaf is not a bad word and saying someone is "totally hearing-impaired" makes no sense, that's like saying someone is a little bit pregnant. Plus saying that Bell founded an association for the hearing-impaired which *today* is called the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf is taking PC too far. I read the words hearing-impaired a few times when it felt appropriate but mostly I edited and used the word deaf when reading aloud. And just now I've googled it and deaf people actually take offense at being called hearing-impaired! http://www.start-american-sign-langua... (scroll down to labels)

[Gracie Larcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Reaction: I loved this book! I've always known about Alexander Graham Bell, but this book provided me with more details and it was very interesting. Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life has snapshots of Alexander Graham Bells life and accomplishments throughout the book, which makes it all the more interesting.

Read Aloud: This book would be great read aloud during a unit on inventors, or historical figures. This book could be connected to a variety of different curriculums, such as history, inventors, famous people, or the inventions themselves; there are so many options. The most important nonfiction convention in this book is the pictures throughout it, they do a great job at capturing the readers attention as well as reinforcing the text and will keep children interested.

Independent Reading: I would recommend this book to a student who was especially interested in learning about inventions or potentially who was going to do a project on Alexander Graham Bell. Not only does this book itself have a lot of information but there are also websites mentioned at the back that a student could also use.

Literary Elements: Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life does a wonderful job of telling all about the inventor and his life. Because of this I think it makes for a great example of characterization and how important character details are to a story/biography.

[Natalie Brockmeier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was very informative and filled with interesting facts that I had never known before. Additionally, the layout of the pages was very visually appealing. There is a mix of pictures from the time, pictures of people and texts. As well pockets of bright colors.
I definitely want to have an inventors unit in my class. I would read this book aloud for a piece of this unit. I could also have a science unit on inventing things, and talk about how creators did invent their most famous things and then the class would have the chance to invent something for themselves.
For a read aloud, I would suggest this to a student who really loved science. This book would be a great time for the student to extend their love for science and bring in literature to that. Also, Alexander Graham Bell had to try many things before he could succeed in his life. This could be encouraging to a student who was struggling with problems.
Lastly, this has very teachable elements of an informational book. The most impressive aspect of this story is a list of museums that inventions from Alexander Graham Bell could be found. If my class had a field trip to a museum, we could discuss all types of museums and look at their online resources.

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typically unextraordinary--but it WAS a good into. to Alexander Graham Bell, which we followed up with this animated version of his life which was a HUGE hit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4hlJl...

[Sarah Melfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clever, very factual, and very easy to read. This book had just enough information for the reader to discover who Alexander Bell was, but not too much detail that made it boring.