MARVELOUS MATTIE: HOW MARGARET E. KNIGHT BECAME AN INVENTOR by Emily Arnold McCully

As a child, Mattie Knight loved to design and invent things for her family, including kites for her older brothers. When Mattie was eleven, her mother moved the family to Manchester, New Hampshire to work at the textile mills. While in New Hampshire, Mattie invented a safety device for the textile machine. When she was grown, Mattie invented a machine to make a square-bottomed paper bag. When a man tried to steal her plans, Mattie had to fight to prove that the design was hers. Paper bags like the ones she helped create remain in use today.

This was a short, interesting biography written in a narrative format. As a librarian, I am always looking for good biographies about women. This one, in particular, is good, because many teachers often plan units on inventors and inventions. An author’s note at the end would also prove useful for classroom research, with additional dates and facts about the life of Margaret E. Knight.