The Marvelous Thing That Came from a Spring
by Gilbert Ford · Grade 2-4 · Ages Ages 5-9
This lively picture-book biography tells how a curious engineer named Richard James noticed a spring doing something surprising. With help from his family, that simple spring begins its journey toward becoming a famous toy.
Key vocabulary
Something marvelous is wonderful or amazing.
A spring is a curly piece of metal that can stretch, bounce, or wiggle back into shape.
An inventor is a person who creates something new.
An engineer is someone who designs or builds things to solve problems.
Accidental means something happened by surprise, not because someone planned it.
A prototype is the first model of an invention, made to test an idea.
A factory is a place where people and machines make lots of things.
A demonstration is when someone shows how something works.