📻 I love books that showcase smart women and Hedy Lamarr is an amazing example to introduce to children.

📻 I believe children, particularly girls, should know about pioneering women like Hedy – she wasn’t just a pretty face and a famous actress! She also had a brilliant scientific mind and co-invented a radio signal hopping device that was the precursor to the wireless technology we use today.

📻 This book does a good job of highlighting a few specific events in her life, but the biographical timeline in the back of the book provides a bit more insight so don’t skip over it. Plus, there are photographs!

📻 I absolutely recommend this book to children. Books like this can inspire children to reach for all of their dreams!

Thank you @NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group/Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Hedy Lamarr was a genius and I'm so excited that she's finally getting the recognition that she deserves! I loved this book because it showed the range of her talents in a way that kids will love and adults will appreciate! The artwork was adorable and it was so informative!

The illustrations are lackluster, with flat colors and fairly minimalistic detail. The story itself is fine, but there have been a number of recent children's biographies published about Lamarr, and this one isn't particularly special. It also jumps too quickly from her inventing efforts to smartphones, saying that her work laid the groundwork for wireless Internet. This is true, but the book doesn't explain any of the science behind this, and doesn't introduce other implications of her work that were relevant in her historical period.

Parental note: This book directly mentions how Lamarr appeared nude in one of her early films, and the controversy that this created.

As per all of Vegara's books , the illustrations in this book are brilliant, detailed and colourful. Hedy Lamarr is one my favourite people in history, always underestimated because she was beautiful, and because she was an actress. But that does not mean that you cannot be both beautiful and smart. Finally, this book is something that I have been waiting for over a decade that I will proudly show my students and my family, showing the true history that most miss out when discussing advances in technology. Lamarr is one of the two minds who helped create frequency hopping in the 1950s which is something that is now used in nearly every household- wifi.

I really enjoyed this inspirational biography. The fast-paced storytelling is accessible and gripping. I like the colourful illustrations too, especially how green is used for Hedy throughout the book. I wonder if it was Hedy’s favourite colour or it’s the illustrator’s choice, but it’s a colour that reminds me of peace, growth, vigour and life, which seems very apt for Hedy’s story. Too widespread is the myth that brains and beauty can’t coexist, and too often are women inventors written out of the history of science. I am glad this book features Hedy’s story and gives her due credit for a piece of technology that is still crucial in our everyday life. I would definitely recommend this book to children, parents and teachers alike.

Thank you Quarto and Frances Lincoln for this ARC.

I loved this new book in the Little People Big Dreams series. And I have to say that Hedy Lamarr was a prefect one for this series. As I think more young people need to learn about Hedy.

Despription, taken from Netgalley:
Young Hedy Lamarr was fascinated with machines. She love to sit with her father and hear all about scientific theories. A gifted musician and actress, she soon found fame on the stage, but her scientific curiosity never stopped.

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I really do love this book series - because you are given so many interesting facts about people, with lovely illustrations. I didn´t know Hedy before (or I was not aware of her) - but a few months ago I read something about her. Then I found this littl book gem and I was happy to read a bit more of her life. Honestly, the books aren´t super long and mostly wonderful for kids - BUT if you are a non native speaker to the English language, this is the possibility to practice =)

I would always recommend this series of books to other people, they make nice gifts for little and big kids as well =)

#HedyLamarr #NetGalley - thanks for letting me have this book.

I got this on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely love this book series, so it comes as a shock to no one that I also ended up loving this one! I love the art style and how it reminded me of the old Hollywood era! It also tells the story of Hedy Lamarr very well, and I felt like I learned something new! Perfect for younger children, and perfect to use in an educational context!

Did you know that this woman from a part of the world that was invaded by Germany was much more than a beautiful actress? Or that her life was hardly some fairy tale? Or that it was because she was a beautiful woman that it took many years for her engineering brilliance to be appreciated?
The illustrations by Maggie Cole are fun, simple, colorful, and delightful.
Well suited for reading WITH someone of any age including ESL, and great for gifting to anyone, but especially to a school or public library!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from Quarto Publishing Group/Frances Lincoln Children's Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

This picture book biography tells the story of Hedy Lamarr, an actress from Vienna who escaped from her controlling husband and moved to the US. A theme of women being smarter than men give them credit for is common throughout the story.

Each page has beautiful, colour-filled pages with 3-4 lines of text. There is a lot of great biographical information, but it also follows a story that will hook young readers. I believe this book would be best fit for children in the 7-11 age range. As a grade 3 teacher I could definitely see this book in my classroom library in the future!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review a digital ARC of this book!

This series is adorable. I love it as a whole and was so excited to see how they deal with the story of Hedy Lamarr, an actress in the golden age of cinema.

There was one or two topics discussed about Hedy's life that might be a tough concept to discuss with kids, but the overall story was incredibly inspiring.

This is a great story to remind kids they can do anything!

Such a brilliant series of books that make me so happy to read and review - not only do you learn but these are fantastic classroom resources as well.
I knew very little about Hedy Lamarr but what a life!
These books educate adults just as well as children.
Highly recommend for all ages.

I had never heard of Hedy Lamarr prior to this book, but I selected it because I love this series. I think too much from Hedy's life was left out in the writing of this book, because it had weird transitions, especially from school to acting and beyond. It was a very choppy read. Hedy was so smart though! I want to do more research to know more about her! The end of the book had a good timeline and extended biography, but I would still like to know more.

My thanks to Quarto Group - Francis Lincoln Children’s Books for a temporary digital edition via NetGalley of ‘Hedy Lamarr’ by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara with illustrations by Maggie Cole.

This is the latest addition to the highly acclaimed Little People, BIG DREAMS series of illustrated books for readers aged 4-7 that is intended to introduce them to the lives of innovators in various fields.

Hedy Lamarr is a particularly fascinating example as from an early age she was clearly highly intelligent. While she followed her passion for acting first in Germany and later in Hollywood during its Golden Age, she was also an inventor. This something I only learned of recently when reading a work of nonfiction about notable women of the 20th Century.

Among her inventions she collaborated with a musician friend to create a radio signal device. This invention later became the basis of wireless internet technology. Pretty amazing!

The book concludes with a biographical timeline accompanied by photographs and a suggestion for further reading at an older level.

I loved Maggie Cole’s artwork. I thought that its style reflected the elegance of Lamarr. Also, her primary use of green for Hedy’s outfits was striking to my eye. I also liked the symbolic ‘bride in a gilded cage’ image.

I always enjoy reading these little books and enthusiastically recommending them widely. They are an excellent way to inspire children to pursue their own dreams.

I love this series of books, little people big dreams. They are amazing books for children and adults alike. This one is no different, my 7 year old daughter really enjoyed reading it, as did I. The illustrations are wonderful as well. Recommend

In this picture book biography, 1930-1950’s actress Hedy Lamarr is celebrated because she was also an inventor. She and a partner invented a communication system called signal hopping which was intended to aid in World War II, and is the basis of cell phone and wifi technology. She was never paid for the invention since the patent was donated to the U.S. government to help in the war effort. Unfortunately, there is no mention that Lamarr’s parents were Jewish. Full page illustrations appear to be rendered in gouache and have a cartoonish style, and the final two pages has more facts and four b&w photos of Lamarr. Wallmark’s Hedy Lamarr’s Double Life (Sterling, 2019) is preferrable.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
This is a short book about Hedy Lamarr. It tells about her early life, her first marriage, and her first big invention. The book is simple and themed in green. At the end, there is a timeline with more information and a few photographs of Hedy.
I felt like some of the word choice was not the best for a book written for children. Also, there was so much that Hedy did, spying on her first husband, working against WWII, and various films. There could have been more of that included in the actual book and/or the timeline at the end.
Overall, it was a good book and highlighted an important inventor that is often overlooked due to her film career.

: "I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
I was not familiar with Hedy Lamarr until reading this book and that saddens me. She was a strong determined woman that refused to be places in a box. She was beautiful and was not afraid to use her intellect as well.
I love this series, it really opens the eyes of the students about the people on which history was built on

I never knew there was so much I didn't know about Hedy Lamarr! Unfortunately, I thought there were more interesting elements in the additional biography at the end of the book than those focused upon in the book. A marriage where Hedy was unappreciated would hardly have been interesting to the book's intended audience, but that she helped develop a technology to help the war against the Nazis using a self-playing piano and possibly as a reaction to her husband (whom she escaped) selling arms to the Nazis... surely that would be?

Reading this makes me want to research more about this actor (and inventor, who would have thought?) and I hope it has that effect on younger minds too, just that they don't have to read more than the main text to be inspired to do so! Aside from that, the art style was quite engaging and would sit well alongside other books in this much beloved series!

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a pleasant surprise. An easy read of an interesting life of a fascinating woman. Highly recommended.
(Thanks to Net Galley for this Book).