Mistakes that Worked: 40 Familiar Inventions and How They Came to Be

A fun book filled with summaries of the stories behind the mostly accidental creation of some nifty inventions. Focused on the curiousity of those who witness something unusual and don't toss product. They think about what problem that 'surprise reaction' could fix. Book shows that making mistakes isn't a waste of time.

Good read.

A nice collection of historical anecdotes concerning accidental inventions and discoveries. It was nice to see the bizarre origins of many now-commonplace items. The tone was light, and the chapters, though many, we quite short. There was a nice bit of humor thrown in, too; and pictures and charts helped convey information without being monotonous. A fun book for kids that adults can enjoy, too.

Grades 4-8

Mistakes and accidents happen in everyone’s life, but these mistakes and accidents have actually enriched people’s lives. Some were just fun, like Silly Putty, just were tasty, like potato chips and chocolate chip cookies, and some were helpful, like Velcro and Vulcanized rubber. It’s all here, in this entertaining book intended for kids, but adults might learn a thing or two, too.

This is a collection of 40 stories about inventions that were discovered by accident. The stories are divided into themes of food, medicine, entertainment, geography, clothing, and materials. Each invention is presented as the product of an inventor who made a mistake during the process of trying to make something else. At the end of each story there are notes that include facts about the invention, or surprising statistics, or recipes, or a key word (like tea) in different languages. Illustrations are done by John O'Brien. Even as an adult reader, I was interested in the stories and learned things I didn't know about before. I didn't know until after reading the book that it was first published in 1991 and the edition I read was from show more 1994. That would make me question some of the accuracy of the stories if new details have come out since then.According to Amazon.com, there have been significant updates made, including to the statistics, and the most recent Kindle version is from 2016. I like that this book compiles a variety of stories which can be compared and analyzed together. Readers can go beyond just learning facts, but interact with the stories by trying out the recipes, languages, and other activities suggested. They can gain perspective on the process of doing a project or making an idea reality through invention and the challenges inventors face in the process. show less

First heard about this book from my coworkers when teaching inventions. These are all real stories that sound totally made up that explain how things we use all of the time were actually accidentally invented. My favorite that I use in my lessons is the chocolate chip cookie story, which basically is that a woman who worked at a tollhouse (ie tollhouse cookies) was trying to bake chocolate cookies but didn't have ingredients for chocolate cookies so she put pieces of chocolate in her batter thinking it would all mix in and create chocolate cookies. Kids love these stories and most of them are pretty funny.

Mistakes that worked is a book of 40 inventions that started because of a mistake. This is a truly interesting approach to learning about how many of the things we use everyday were invented. The book is organized with an introduction in the beginning, followed by a table of contents. The table of contents shows the book divided into five chapters, favorite foods, doctor, doctor, fun, fun, fun, all kinds of accidental things, and what they wear. This book is written for a younger audience, and there are inserts included such as recipes and kitchen safety. In the kitchen safety it tells you to ask a parent's permission before using the kitchen, indicating the age level of this book. There are illustrations throughout the book, adding to show more each of the inventions. I would, as an educator, use this book in a science classroom perhaps where students could make inventions of their own or research other inventions. This is a well written book and entertaining even for an adult audience, there are lots of "fun facts" and interesting statistics throughout the book. Who knew Coca-Cola is the second most widely understood term in the world after "okay"? I would highly suggest this book to any young reader, this book would be especially good for reluctant readers because of the style and content. show less