Weird & Wacky Inventions

Weird & Wacky Inventions by Jim Murphy is a non-fiction book about, you guessed it, weird and wacky inventions from long ago. Some examples of these inventions are a self-tipping hat for men, a haircutting machine, an arm and hand purse, and a portable bathtub. All of these inventions were created a long time ago, but some of these things have been re-created more recently. For example, the haircutting machine is an electric vacuum in a helmet that uses electricity to burn off the hair to the length you want. More recently there was something called a Flowbee that did almost the same thing, but without burning you. A smaller version of the arm and hand purse is used today by joggers and people working out in gyms to hold their keys, identification, and money.

There are a lot of color and black and white drawings of the inventions along with descriptions of what they were supposed to do. Each invention is preceded by a short quiz to see if you can guess what it was supposed to do.

This would be a good book for kids ages 7 to 11 who like to do Maker projects or read about inventions.

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