Earmuffs for Everyone!: How Chester Greenwood Became Known as the Inventor of Earmuffs

Wonderful story and great information about a Maine inventor. I also appreciate the general info about inventions and patents of the time period.

Great Story! My class just learned about this and so this book is a culminating treat for us.

Great book

Great story with so many history points.

Kind of loses my interest as an adult, so I am thinking it would not hold children's interest.

A bit boring and not on topic enough. Prose seemed awkward and "clunky".

Let me start by saying that I have loved other books by Meghan McCarthy. I am a school librarian, and I have used Pop: The Invention of Bubble Gum and The Story of Charles Atlas, Strong Man to introduce biographies. So I was excited to see that there was another quirky biography out by her, this one about Chester Greenwood, the man who invented earmuffs. Only, it turns out, he didn't invent earmuffs. He improved upon them, and got a patent for his improvement. And a guy in Maine in the 1970's decided that the state of Maine should celebrate Chester Greenwood day every year. So instead of a straightforward biography, this is more the story of Chester Greenwood, with tangents that show the U.S. patent office, that tell how Thomas Edison didn't invent the lightbulb but improved it, a page about Chester Greenwood's wife's work for women's suffrage, and the story of how Chester Greenwood day came to be. The author's note at the end tells how McCarthy came up with the ideas for this book and what she was trying to communicate with it. Reading this made me appreciate more what she was doing. One of her messages is that improving on something can be as important as inventing it. Also, the book can serve as introduction to the process of inventing and getting a patent. But to me, there is just a messy lack of organization to the story. It is not one I would read aloud or use as an example of a good biography.

Calling this odd picture book "quirky" is a bit of an understatement. I'm not sure most young readers really need to know about the history of the earmuff and then, in this instance, it seems the "featured" earmuff inventor didn't really invent the earmuff after all. He only improved it! As other reviewers have noted the narrative here rambles and is all over the place and the story of Chester Greenwood really isn't that important or interesting so why bother? Good question! Why bother indeed? On the other hand, kids love odd and offbeat stories and IN THAT RESPECT this book works so .... your child may love it.