The Marvelous Thing That Came from a Spring: The Accidental Invention of the Toy That Swept the Nation

Richard James sat at his desk, wistfully looking off at a pile of books and a spring. There were piles of paper in the waste bin, springs all over the floor, and a few on a shelf. Richard “worked as an engineer for the United States Navy” and he had a job to do. That one little job was to create an invention “that would keep fragile ship equipment from vibrating in choppy seas.” He tried this, he tried that, and that an this, but not a single one of his springs would do. All of a sudden, one of his springs fell down from a shelf and onto those books. The torsion spring hit his books and *boing* ... it walked across his desk at him!Hmmmm! This was a most unusual spring, something Richard had never encountered before. He turned it this way and that in his hands, thinking it “might not work for the navy’s ships,” but the spring could just be something very special! Richard showed it to his wife, Betty, and then his son, Tom. Tom “let it go from the top of the stairs.” Down, down, down it went as they watched. “I think it’s a toy!” Richard exclaimed to his family, but what would they call it? Betty’s eyes grew tired as she passed her time poring through the dictionary. Of course it was a “Slinky,” because the definition was just right and it even sounded like one.Betty decided that little torsion spring would be the “Slinky: A One-Of-A-Kind Thing!” The long journey of the Slinky had begun, but like the Slinky heading down the stairs, everyone turned them down, down, down. It wasn’t looking good for Richard and Betty, but finally one store decided to give it a try. Gimbels was going to let Richard “demonstrate how it worked to the holiday shoppers.” Richard waited and waited for Betty to arrive to help, but she just wasn’t in the store. He “took a deep breath and let the Slinky go.” Down, down, down the ramp it went. Was this one-of-a-kind toy going to be a flop?This is a marvelously fun tale about the Slinky that children will love. Well, add me to that list because I thoroughly enjoy the tale of this “accidental invention.” Of course Richard was a dreamer and without that imagination, none of us would have ever enjoyed the Slinky’s trek down our stairs. The ever-popular toy has given generations of children a glimpse at just what a torsion spring can do. The artwork has a great retro look that will bring the reader right back into the 1940s. In the back of the book is a brief historical overview of alternate uses of the Slinky and a bit more about Richard and Betty James. There’s a Biblio with additional book resources to explore.Ages: 4 to 8

Love it! My students loved the story. Thank you!!

This was so much fun with my second grade students. I read them the book, then provided original slinky’s to groups- they had fun building stairs, ramps and obstacles

I used this book in our STEM classes and the kids loved it!

Great non-fiction for tweens! Wonderfully illustrated!

My son was entriqued by this book.

boring and poor graphics

I am a bit ambivalent about this book. I thought we would like it more but somehow it was superficial and even a bit boring. The illustrations are like cut out paper dolls. My daughter did actually like the scene where the front lawns in a neighborhood are made out of washcloths! It was pretty clever. Ford also incorporates other classic toys into the illustrations, one page is framed out with pick-up sticks (which my daughter absolutely loves) and another page is framed with dominoes. This gave my daughter and me an idea for a game. We tried to find “games” on each page. For example, on the page where Richard James is in his office trying to design a way to protect fragile equipment from being damaged by vibrations at sea, we see crumpled paper on the floor. We called the crumpled paper spitballs! It was pretty fun trying to come with ideas and some were a pretty big stretch. We also enjoyed watching the old 1960’s Slinky ads on YouTube!This is a book to check out of the library. I thought it would be interesting and motivational. We loved Whoosh! about Lonnie Johnson the inventor of the Super Soaker but this book somehow lacked the same impact. It felt like a poorly illustrated Wikipedia entry. So, although we did not hate it, it was not terribly memorable either.