Margaret Knight and the Paper Bag

September 15, 2018
Grades 2-5 Women inventors and innovators, long overlooked, certainly deserve their own series. Each of these new books in the 21st Century Junior Library: Women Innovators series provides a straightforward account of one woman and her life-changing idea. These innovations vary from simple, everyday objects, such as paper bags and disposable diapers, to the basis of modern computing. The books' design is basic, with each spread featuring a single captioned photo and a page of text. The photos are largely bland stock photos, vaguely relevant to the text, but a sprinkling of historical images directly related to the subjects and their achievements add interest. Margaret Knight raises the unanswered question of the significance of the now-ubiquitous paper bag as reusable bags become more popular. Overall, these books serviceably fill several gaps and would be a useful addition to a school or library for research projects.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)