Member Reviews

Hedy was a fascinating woman of many talents, extreme beauty, and extremely smart. I read Beautiful Invention a novel of Hetty Lamar a few years ago and was fascinated by her story. Little people big dreams Hetty Lamar is a wonderful book for children. With colorful and captivating illustrations, simple descriptions, and a more involved timeline at the back of the book, this is perfect for a wide range of ages. LPBD books are a favorite of mine and IMO, one of the best children's series available!

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I loved this book by Little People, Big Dreams. What an lovely biography showing that woman can be beautiful and smart. I love that they don't shy away from leaving her husband and his controlling ways. Well done.

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Quick but educating read. To my shame, I haven't heard of Hedy Lamarr prior to reading this book. However, now I am interested in learning about her life & inventions. It's always inspiring to see women who are as strong and smart as Hedy. Thank you for paving the way for girls & women across the globe and once again proving that women belong in STEM and nothing separates them from men. I found that in some sentences the language was too simple but I understand it's the language that kids will understand better.

The illustrations are beautiful. Really enjoyed the section at the end with Hedwig's fuller biography and photos.

Thank you Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books, Frances Lincoln Children's Books for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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Thank you NetGalley and Frances Lincoln Children's Books for the ARC of Hedy Lamarr.

This is the first book I've read from this non-fiction series for children. I like the women in STEM representation and I wish there are more books like this for unknown women scientists. The story was quite jumpy but easy to follow. The illustrations are also amazing. Overall, a great book for kiddos and adults!

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I am extremely thankful to the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book before publication.

I grew up loving Hedy Lamarr and her wonderful movies, but my favorite fact about her has always been that she was more than just a pretty face. She was also an amazing inventor and an invention she helped create during World War 2 was the basis for todays' Bluetooth.

She truly was a woman ahead of her times in both her movies and her inventions, and with this wonderful book children will get to learn about this amazing woman.

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Vegara's series of books keep getting better as they go along, and this is just another great example.

Lamarr's story is only one I'd ever encountered in online "listicles" or memes on Twitter; I had heard about her genius and, like Milicent Patrick (the legendary animator and special effects artist), knew her intelligence was vastly unappreciated due to her beauty, but that's about where it ended.

Thanks to Vegara, I'm a little more knowledgeable, and I can't wait to buy this book and share this very cool story with my daughter.

As usual, the book incorporates vibrant colors and unique drawings to tell its story. As a whole, the "Little People, Big Dreams" volumes have set a fantastic standard for children's books, and this rests comfortably among them.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group, and Frances Lincoln Children's Books for the advance read.

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Thank you so much to Quarto Kids/ Francis Lincoln Children’s and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Heady Lamarr the glamorous movie actress, who was so much more than that. As a child she was a quick learner and loved listening to her fathers science talks, giving her the love of it. She turned to acting and became a sensation, but during the war turned back to science.

Wow this woman was incredible, I knew her by her acting but didn’t know anything about her science, or how she helped during the war. I was actually blown away reading this that she’d created that.

This is a really great book, it’s full of inspiration firstly for how smart she was even as a child, she loved to learn and thrived, then she went after her dreams by acting, people only saw her as a pretty face but she proved to the world she was so much more than that. She fled a horrid marriage and rose high above that and prospered by creating something so vital that it was adapted to what we all use today. She is absolutely incredible and so inspiring.

I adore this series of books and this book is no exception it has really beautiful illustrations and tells another story on someone inspiring. I will always recommend these you can learn so much, be fascinated and be inspired.

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Love this series, especially the titles focused on lesser known bios, like this one. I learned alongside my daughters about the life and technological contributions of Hedy Lamarr while reading this one. Some of the transitions seemed jolty in this book compared to others in the series—like the movie theater scene to her marriage, but I get there’s a lot of ground to cover when trying to tell a life story in a children picture book.

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I received an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books through NetGalley.
Sanchez Vegara introduces readers to an actress/inventor they may not have known. Hedy Lamarr was a brilliant woman who was often overlooked due to her outward appearance. Few understood she was beautiful and intelligent. Readers see her life from childhood through inventing a system that helped the Allies in World War II and formed the part of the basis for modern wireless internet connections. This connection will resonate with readers as technology is so entrenched in their lives.
The author handles the more sensitive portions of her life with dignity and sensitivity to readers' ages.

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I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This isn’t the first book I’ve read about Hedy Lamarr, so I was already acquainted with key points from her remarkable life. Because of this I was wondering how a children’s book might sanitize the mores scandalous parts of Hedy’s life… the answer is, it didn’t. It’s up to each individual reader to decide whether this is a good or a bad thing. Some of the things mentioned might inspire questions and conversations, so be prepared for that if you share this book with a child. Overall, the illustrations are beautiful and the information interesting. It just feels a little rushed and like it’s missing something. But perhaps this book will be the one to inspire more research into this brilliant inventor and breathtaking actress. 4/5 stars.

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What I love about the Little People Big Dreams series is that I had never heard of Hedy Lamarr until picking up this book and she invented wifi!

I’ve read quite a few from this series, and although the story was great the illustrations were not my favourite.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Review to come to blog/goodreads/etc. on 29th December (close to the release day).

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I was excited to see a new book in this series pop up on Netgalley. This time about Hedy Lamarr. Her name sounded familiar, but didn't ring an immediately bell, so I thought it would be fun to learn all about her. And yes, I did google a bit so I got some basic information and didn't go in completely blind. 

In this one we learn all about Hedy Lamarr, or Hedwig as was also her name (to be honest, while I love Hedwig as a name, I can imagine you want to change it to Hedy). We see she is a dreamer, that she loves thinking of inventions, wish we could tell her glow-in-the-dark collar/collar with lights are actually a thing now! We see how she got into acting, what her love life was (and I wanted to yeet that husband of hers), and what did afterwards (which just had me both laughing and saying to my screen: "GO girl! Do it! YAS! Queen!". I loved that she was able to do both acting and inventing and that she apparently made an invention with someone else that wasn't just something to fight Nazis with, but also something that we use daily! That is just so cool. I definitely want to get that in a conversation and see if more people know about it or if everyone is as surprised and thinking it is cool. 

The illustrations took me a bit to get used to. It is not a bad style, but at times perspectives and how people looked was just not working for me. 

Bit of a shame that half of the timeline text had disappeared, the second page had text. And that gave some extra insight in the pages we just saw. Like I was already wondering what the piano had to do with things in the page about that big invention, but apparently that was part of it! And not just some dude randomly playing a tune while she was thinking up plans, as I kind of had thought. XD 

All in all, I learned quite a bit about Hedy Lamarr and I guess I will go on Google to get even more information on her as I want to know more. I would recommend this book to all! A perfect way to get to know people who are famous/did something special.

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My kids love the Little People Big Dreams series, and this is another great addition! I appreciated the emphasis on Hedy Lamarr's contributions to STEM, but I felt there was too much focus on her abusive marriage in a series that should be appropriate for young kids. It would have been nice to devote that page space instead to more detail about how her contributions are still being used today.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy for us to review!

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I love the Little People, Big Dreams series but this was not my favorite. I thought the book placed too much of an emphasis on Hedy’s physical appearance, and parts about her jealous and controlling husband may not be suitable for young children,

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Hedy Lamarr was a renowned actress - apparently labeled as the most beautiful woman to grace the screen. However, she was also an amazing scientist, which many people may be unaware of - due to her former job.

This is why I love Little People, Big Dreams books. They inform our younger readers that anything is possible, just because you are known for being 'one thing, it doesn't stop you from reaching for the stars.

A wonderful addition to add to the Little People, Big Dreams collection

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This is such a great series of kids books! The art style is simple but beautiful. The same can be said about the way the story of Heddy’s life is told. It uses clear language to give a great over view of her life. I appreciated that it didn’t skim over challenging parts of her life, like how her husband was an arms dealer so she left him. Depending on the age group, I’m not sure if I would read aloud the part about her being naked in a movie. But I suppose that was a significant moment in her career. Overall, this book was impactful and memorable. It shows kids that you can have multiple interests and stand up for your dreams.

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Another great book in a fantastic series.
Easy to understand for children, with lovely illustrations too.. Despite the fact I had no idea who this lady was, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to learn about her life from childhood, straight to when she died.

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I love these books, they are so informative but in such a beautiful and fun way. I loved the illustrations as they were so eye catching. These books are perfect for children and this one did not disappoint. I didn’t know much about the life of Hedy Lamarr so definitely found it very educational, I think the story as well as the life timeline at the end is such a good idea.
Thank you for letting me read and review!

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This series is incredibly popular in my libraries. This one is just as good as others I have read in the series, It's bright and accessible with the right level of information for the intended readership. Younger readers will get a good introduction to who Hedy Lamarr was. both as an acclaimed actress and a remarkable inventor. I don't doubt this one will be as popular as others in the series, I certainly enjoyed it.

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This is a wonderful book that encourages children to give the world the best they have and encourages parents to provide books and STEM toys to harness their children’s creativity and curiosity as well as foster a love of inventing!

Children will read about a girl who ran into a lot of barriers, but rather than allow them to defeat her, she persevered. Her message of resilience is clear to readers; never give up, you may end up changing the world one day!

Have you ever wanted to do something, but you didn’t do it because everyone expected you to do something very different?

This is the problem Hedwig (Hedy) Eva Maria Kiesler faced every day of her life. She fought hard in not allowing herself to be boxed in by who Hollywood, her parents, nor her friends wanted her to be. She allowed herself to stay exactly who she wanted to be. Despite it not being popular for women to be trained and work in the sciences, Hedy followed her passion and believed in herself. Her hard work and dedication paid off.

My niece and nephew went around the house and listed all the tools that we use on an hourly basis that use Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. Not only were they surprised at the size of the list they’d made, but they were surprised to learn that Hedy Lamarr was behind all the technology on the list.

She may have been named “the most beautiful person in the world’ by Hollywood, but her brain was just as interesting as her looks. In a selfie world where everyone is concerned about how they look; it may be time to remind our young people that brains are beautiful too!

I was gifted this copy by Quarto Publishing Group, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

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