Innovations in Communication. (Problem Solved! Your Turn to Think Big). Cynthia O'Brien. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017. 32 pp., pbk., hc. & html, $8.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (RLB). ISBN 978-0-7787-2683-8 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-2672-2 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1804-2 (html). Subject Headings: Communication-Technological innovations-Juvenile literature. Telecommunication-Technological innovations-Juvenile literature. Communication-Juvenile literature. Telecommunication-Juvenile literature. Inventions-Juvenile literature. Grades 4-6 / Ages 9-11. Review by Suzanne Pierson. **** /4
	Innovations in Entertainment. (Problem Solved! Your Turn to Think Big). L. E. Carmichael. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017. 32 pp., pbk., hc. & html, $8.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (RLB). ISBN 978-0-7787-2682-1 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-2671-5 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1803-5 (html). Subject Headings: Amusements-Technological innovations-Juvenile literature. Inventions-Juvenile literature. Grades 4-6 / Ages 9-11. Review by Suzanne Pierson. **** /4
	Innovations in Everyday Technology. (Problem Solved! Your Turn to Think Big). Larry Verstraete. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017. 32 pp., pbk., hc. & html, $8.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (RLB). ISBN 978-0-7787-2684-5 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-2678-4 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1805-9 (html). Subject Headings: Technology-Juvenile literature. Technological innovations-Juvenile literature. Inventions-Juvenile literature. Grades 4-6 / Ages 9-11. Review by Suzanne Pierson. **** /4
	Innovations in Health. (Problem Solved! Your Turn to Think Big). L. E. Carmichael. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017. 32 pp., pbk., hc. & html, $8.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (RLB). ISBN 978-0-7787-2687-6 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-2681-4 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1808-0 (html). Subject Headings: Medical innovations-Juvenile literature. Medicine-History-Juvenile literature. Inventions-Juvenile literature. Grades 4-6 / Ages 9-11. Review by Suzanne Pierson. **** /4
	Innovations in Safety. (Problem Solved! Your Turn to Think Big). Cynthia O'Brien. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017. 32 pp., pbk., hc. & html, $8.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (RLB). ISBN 978-0-7787-2685-2 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-2679-1 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1806-6 (html). Subject Headings: Industrial safety-Technological innovations-Juvenile literature. Accidents-Prevention-Juvenile literature. Inventions-Juvenile literature. Grades 4-6 / Ages 9-11. Review by Suzanne Pierson. **** /4
	Innovations in Transportation. (Problem Solved! Your Turn to Think Big). Larry Verstraete. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017. 32 pp., pbk., hc. & html, $8.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (RLB). ISBN 978-0-7787-2686-9 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-2680-7 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1807-3 (html). Subject Headings: Transportation-Technological innovations-Juvenile literature. Inventions-Juvenile literature. Grades 4-6 / Ages 9-11. Review by Suzanne Pierson. **** /4

excerpt:

Inventions and Innovations

An invention is a product or process that is the first creation of its kind. The first bicycle ever built is an invention. Joe Breeze's mountain bike is an innovation. An innovation is a change or improvement to an existing invention. Inventions and innovations in transportation make getting around easier, faster, and safer for all of us. Perhaps the stories in this book will inspire you to be a problem solver, too. (From Innovation in Transportation.)

Crabtree's "The Problem Solved! Your Turn to Think Big" series currently consists of six books: Innovations in Communication, Innovations in Entertainment, Innovations in Everyday Technologies, Innovations in Health, Innovations in Safety, and Innovations in Transportation.

      Each book in the series follows the standard presentation for junior nonfiction: Table of Contents, Index, Glossary, and a "Learning More" section which includes both books and internet resource selections for further study on the topic.

      The examples used to explain the inventions and innovations in each field are well-chosen and appropriate for young learners. The text is clear, presented in a very reader friendly format, and is well-supported by colourful images. In addition to historical photographs and illustrations, each book includes a good number of pictures of young male and female students from a diverse range of ethnicities.

      My favourite feature in each book is the "Young Inventor Spotlight". The young inventors are all fascinating.

Jack Andraka
Cancer is another disease that sometimes affects the pancreas. Because symptoms don't usually show up early, doctors often don't notice pancreatic cancer until it's too late. When a friend died of pancreatic cancer, 15 year old Jack Andraka decided to do something. In 2012, he designed a test to detect pancreatic cancer tumors when they are still small. Someday, Jack's test could save lives. (From Innovations in Health.)

      Each book also includes a graphic description of the steps in the Engineering Design Process: Ask, Brainstorm, Plan, Create, and Improve and Communicate. This graphic, titled "You, the Inventor", is followed by a section titled "Think Big!". This section challenges students to follow the steps in the Engineering Design Process "to think big" and solve a problem that they have identified themselves.

      Innovations in Communication looks at the development of the braille alphabet, e books, radio, voice recognition systems, communication satellites, cell phones, and Facebook, and others.

      Innovations in Entertainment includes a full page about the inventor of basketball. Interestingly, James Naismith is identified as a Canadian teacher, although he was apparently teaching in Massachusetts when he created the game.

Do you have a basketball hoop in your driveway or school gym? You can thank Canadian teacher James Naismith. December 1891 was an extremely cold month, and Naismith had to come up with a fun indoor game for his students to play during gym class. He decided to nail two old peach baskets to the balcony on the opposite ends of the gym. Teams scored points by getting a ball into one of the baskets. Each time someone scored, the players waited while someone climbed a ladder to retrieve the ball. Naismith's class loved the new game.

      Other topics in Innovations in Entertainment include television, crayons, Monopoly, transformers, Barbie, and others.

      Innovations in Everyday Technologies covers inventions from the mundane, like coat hangers, to the life changing, like safety elevators. Without clothes hangers and electric toasters, we would probably find other ways to hang our clothes and toast our toast, but, without safety elevators, our cities would look very different. Huge skyscrapers would not be feasible.

Before 1857, elevators were raised and lowered by ropes. Sometimes the ropes broke, plunging the elevator to the bottom. For safety reasons, many people chose to climb the stairs instead. That changed, however, when Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator. He created a device, from heavy coiled springs, that would attach to the elevator and stop it from dropping.

      Innovations in Health focuses on many life changing inventions: vaccines for smallpox and polio, anesthesia, X rays, hearing aids, and laser eye surgery. The Canadian team of scientists, Banting and Best and colleagues, who purified insulin, are highlighted in the section, "Beating Diabetes".

      Innovations in Safety topics include a way to plant trees from the air to help combat climate change, water bottles made from plant materials, safety glass, car air bags, and an inflating bike helmet called the Hövding.

      Innovations in Transportation includes bicycles, roller skates, water skis, scuba gear, subways, and hoverboards, in addition to the regular modes of transportation: cars, boats, and planes.

      The examples in each of the books in "The Problem Solved! Your Turn to Think Big" series will be engaging to students in Grades 3 6 and well beyond. The books are well-written and well illustrated. The real strength of the books is in the repeated message to students to think creatively and become problem solvers now. With specific examples to motivate them and steps to guide them through the "Engineering Design Process", young inventors and innovators are sure to feel empowered to dream big and act now.

Highly Recommended.

Dr. Suzanne Pierson, a retired teacher librarian, is currently instructing Librarianship courses at Queen's University in Kingston, ON.

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