Genius Inventors and Their Great Ideas

978-0-7660-4136-3 Library
978-1-4644-0206-7 Paperback

Written for the upper elementary market, these seven titles in the Genius Inventors and Their Great Ideas series detail the inventor's journey from idea to final product, giving readers insight into how these inventions were achieved. George Ferris created the ferris wheel for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

Other inventors in the series are Philo T. Farnsworth, Stephanie Kwolek, Theodore Maiman, James Naismith, Les Paul, and Vivien Thomas. These 48-page books are great for those interested in inventors and how those ideas came about.

James Naismith would have celebrated a birthday today

Who was James Naismith? He was the inventor of basketball! He was told to invent an indoor game, and had two weeks to create it. He wanted a fun and fast game, not wanting  it to be risky, like football or rugby, and he didn't want it to be rough, so that the participants would get hurt. As a child, he used to play duck on a rock, which was the inspiration for his new creation of basketball. Want to learn more about duck on a rock and James Naismith? Click here.

Naismith's Rules of the Game Set to Be Auctioned

There's an interesting article in The New York Times today that caught my eye about Dr. James Naismith who wrote the first rules of the game of basketball. His original rules are set to be auctioned by Sotheby's. What I learned is that nearly every sport is evolved from something else but basketball is one of the few invented sports.

Enslow's The Man Who Invented Basketball: James Naismith and His Amazing Game from our Genius at Work! Great Inventor Biographies series is a great way to tie-in this famous inventor with current events. This book is 32 pages for grades 3–4 and includes a timeline, words to know, a further reading list and Internet addresses, and an index.