Plowing a potato field in 1920, a 14-year-old farm boy from Idaho saw in the parallel rows of overturned earth a way to “make pictures fly through the air.” This boy was not a magician; he was a scientific genius and just eight years later he made his brainstorm in the potato field a reality by transmitting the world’s first television image. This fascinating picture-book biography of Philo Farnsworth covers his early interest in machines and electricity, leading up to how he put it all together in one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. The author’s afterword discusses the lawsuit Farnsworth waged and won against RCA when his high school science teacher testified that Philo’s invention of television was years before RCA’s.
WINNER
| 2010 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
WINNER
| 2009 Parents' Choice Silver Honor Book
WINNER
| 2009 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
NOMINEE Kansas William White Award
NOMINEE Pennsylvania Keystone State Reading Association Book Award
NOMINEE
| 2011 Indiana Young Hoosier Master List
Starred Review, School Library Journal, September 2009: "One to inspire young audiences with the vast possibilities that imagination and diligence can accomplish."
The New York Times Book Review, December 20, 2009: "Beautiful and beautifully told, the book tracks like the sort of graphic novel that breaks your heart, with its implied passage of time and slipping awawy of early dreams."
Plowing a potato field in 1920, a 14-year-old farm boy from Idaho saw in the parallel rows of overturned earth a way to “make pictures fly through the air.” This boy was not a magician; he was a scientific genius and just eight years later he made his brainstorm in the potato field a reality by transmitting the world’s first television image. This fascinating picture-book biography of Philo Farnsworth covers his early interest in machines and electricity, leading up to how he put it all together in one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. The author’s afterword discusses the lawsuit Farnsworth waged and won against RCA when his high school science teacher testified that Philo’s invention of television was years before RCA’s.
Awards
WINNER
| 2010 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
WINNER
| 2009 Parents' Choice Silver Honor Book
WINNER
| 2009 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
NOMINEE Kansas William White Award
NOMINEE Pennsylvania Keystone State Reading Association Book Award
NOMINEE
| 2011 Indiana Young Hoosier Master List
Praise
Starred Review, School Library Journal, September 2009: "One to inspire young audiences with the vast possibilities that imagination and diligence can accomplish."
The New York Times Book Review, December 20, 2009: "Beautiful and beautifully told, the book tracks like the sort of graphic novel that breaks your heart, with its implied passage of time and slipping awawy of early dreams."
