Calling All Minds

Calling All Minds
by Temple Grandin
Philomel Book, 2018. Informational. 228 p.
I have always admired the famous animal scientist, Temple Grandin. This children's book, written by her, is part craft book, part memoir, and part motivational handbook. The writing is disarmingly candid. Grandin talks about her struggles and her victories with honesty and rather delightful humor. Grandin mentions projects that she did as a young person and how they helped prepared her to be an inventor and scientist as an adult. As she discusses the projects she gives instructions how the reader can make the same or similar project. The craft projects are grouped roughly by theme: paper crafts, projects about flight, projects about simple machines, etc. Some of the projects are as simple as drawing a basic optical illusion. Others are very complex and require specialized materials to complete. The variety of difficulty levels and the charming writing makes it so that there is something here for everyone.

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