Cover Reveal of The 50 States of Invention: Coast to Coast Innovation and Creation by Heather Alexander, presented by The Children’s Book Review.
From toaster ovens to spaceships, big ideas are everywhere! We’re revealing the cover of The 50 States of Invention: Coast to Coast Innovation and Creation by Heather Alexander and illustrated by Brad Woodard.
Packed with retro-inspired color, playful details, and an incredible assortment of American inventions, Brad Woodard’s cover perfectly captures the curiosity and creativity at the heart of the book. Inside, readers will discover more than 300 inventions from across all 50 states, including history-changing innovations, everyday essentials, and wonderfully unexpected creations like bubble wrap, glitter, and the disco ball.
Take a closer look at the cover below, then read our interview with Heather Alexander about the surprising stories behind familiar objects, the inventors who persevered through mistakes and setbacks, and how even the biggest innovations can begin with one itty-bitty idea.
Cover Reveal
Author Interview
The cover is such a vibrant, playful mash-up! From the Wright Brothers’ plane to a monster truck to a disco ball, when you first saw the cover artwork, what was your reaction, and were there any inventions on it that felt like the perfect “yes, that’s exactly the spirit of this book” moment?
Heather Alexander (HA): I absolutely loved it, especially the retro-color blocking! And the bold illustrations from super-talented Brad Woodard (@bravethewoods) land in that perfect spot between nostalgic and contemporary. I was overjoyed that Brad and Maisy Ruffels, designer at Wide-Eyed/Quarto, conveyed the incredible breadth of American inventions–from the super-practical, like the toaster and the typewriter, to the super-whimsical, like the disco ball and the ring-shaped doughnut.
The book spans everything from history-changing technology (like the Wright Brothers or the Apollo missions) to everyday items kids use without a second thought (like sporks or ice cream sundaes). How did you balance the “big, famous” inventions with the smaller, quirkier ones so the book feels fun rather than like a textbook?
HA: My goal with all my nonfiction is to share information in an engaging way, as if I were telling you a story at a party, so that kids are then eager to share the bite-sized tales with their family during dinner or a car ride. While the historical and life-changing impact of certain inventions, such as the portable heart monitor or the light bulb, is undeniable (and they do appear in the book), I know what hooks readers is discovering who dreamed up the Pop-Tart or bubble wrap or glitter. But whatever the invention, they all began as an itty-bitty idea. A way to solve a problem. A way to improve upon something. A way to reuse or repurpose. A way to make life easier. Inventions rarely emerge fully realized. There’s tinkering and rethinking. Mistakes are made. Ideas are stolen. Naysayers weigh in. And yet . . . inventors persevere. Those are the stories that are fun to tell. The ones full of twists and turns, surprises and happy accidents, human ingenuity, and resilience.
Some of these invention origin stories are delightfully unexpected: cotton candy from a Tennessee dentist, toilet paper from New York. What was the most surprising invention story you uncovered while researching, and how did it change the way you think about “everyday” objects?
HA: I now realize that everything we encounter has a story! For example, there’s the family who were so desperate to entertain their bored kids, they created a new sport called Pickleball. Or the housewife who, upon seeing that no one was buying the pink lip balm her husband cooked on their kitchen stove, thought to change the packaging from a flat tin to a tube. From that moment on, ChapStick flew off the shelves. And there’s the engineer who was hired by a ski resort to find a speedier way to get skiers up the mountain. Recalling a trip to Honduras where he’d seen a conveyor-belt device that used hooks to lift bunches of bananas onto cargo boats, he replaced the fruit hooks with chairs attached to a cable line to invent the first chair lift. Or how, in the early days of football, quarterbacks kept accidentally throwing the referees the ball, so one fed-up referee designed a black-and-white shirt to clearly signal he wasn’t a player. And there are so many more!
From the Mars rover to the humble spork, how did you decide which of the 300+ inventions made the cut, and which ones were the hardest to leave out?
HA: It wasn’t easy! With space for five or six inventions per state, I made every effort to balance the quirkier inventions with the more serious ones, as well as include inventions from women, kids, and underrepresented groups. I think there’s something for everyone. I also made sure to slip in (just like Ruth Wakefield added chopped chocolate to her batter to invent the chocolate chip cookie!) a good helping of history, geography, science, marketing, and critical thinking.
What do you hope young readers take away about their own creative potential—and is there a particular state or inventor’s story you think will spark that spirit most?
HA: It’s my hope that the stories in The 50 States of Invention encourage readers to act boldly and roll up their sleeves to design and create. I particularly love Margaret Knight’s tale. She worked in a factory in Maine that assembled paper bags by hand. She couldn’t believe how dreadfully slow and time-consuming the process was, so in 1868, she invented a machine that could quickly cut, fold, and glue paper bags. She also changed the design of the envelope-like bags and gave them square bottoms. Flat-bottom bags were both easier to pack and sturdier, which meant people could buy much more in one trip to the store and completely changed how we shop. But the story doesn’t end there. A man, who’d seen her machine being built, stole her idea and filed a patent for it under his own name. Knight fought back and took him to court. She showed her original blueprints as well as notes in her diary, and her landlady and the machinist acted as witnesses. Even so, the man claimed that Knight was lying. He said she couldn’t have come up with the design, because machines were too complicated for a woman to understand! Knight stood in the witness box and explained in precise detail every component and all the inner workings of the machine she invented. She won, and the judge awarded her the patent.
About the Book
The 50 States of Invention: Coast to Coast Innovation and Creation
Written by Heather Alexander
Illustrated by Brad Woodard
Ages: 7-10 | Pages: 112
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions (2027) | ISBN13: 978-1836009078
Publisher’s Synopsis: America may be the home of the brave, but did you know it’s also the home of trampolines, disco balls, and the cherry on your ice cream sundae?
When it comes to genius inventors and their game changing ideas, every state has a story to tell. In The 50 States of Invention, you’ll discover over 300 of the most marvelous, from the Tennessee dentist who invented cotton candy to the slam-dunk creation of basketball in Massachusetts.
This compendium of gadget, gizmos, and great creations from every state includes:
- The Mars rover designed and built in Oklahoma
- Monster trucks from Missouri
- A shrimp-peeling machine from Louisiana
- Toilet paper from New York
- The humble spork from Rhode Island
- And many, many more!
Showcasing pioneering technologies that changed the world, as well as everyday items whose history you’ve probably never thought about, The 50 States of Invention is full of “No way!” moments, guaranteed to get your brain whizzing with ideas about what you can invent next.
Also in The 50 States series: The 50 States, 50 Trailblazers of the 50 States, 50 Adventures in the 50 States, The 50 States in 50 Words, and 50 Maps of the World.
Pre-Order the Book
About the Author
Heather Alexander is the author of numerous books for children, both non-fiction and fiction. Her non-fiction books include A Child’s Introduction to Art, A Child’s Introduction to Greek Mythology, A Child’s Introduction to Egyptology, A Child’s Introduction to the Nutcracker, and Only in America. She is also the author of the fiction series Wallace and Grace Take the Case and Eat Bugs. She is a former children’s book editor and lives in Los Angeles.
Learn more about Heather at her website: heatheralexanderbooks.com.
