McCutcheon profiles nine lads and lasses from the last two centuries who at least began making names for themselves in science or invention while children or teenagers. While fossil hunter Mary Anning, rocketeer Robert Goddard, and educator Louis Braille already enjoy (relatively) high profiles, young readers will be less familiar with the stories of Philo Farnsworth (television), 19th-century math prodigy and astronomer Truman Safford, polymath Isaac Asimov, or Emily Rosa, a nine-year-old whose science project won national press coverage in the mid-’90s. McCutcheon is spotty with details, however, particularly about several of his subjects’ later careers, and aside from a scattering of photos (including one of Asimov holding someone else’s Hugo Award), the illustrations are strictly filler. Inspiring fare for budding inventors, but an also-ran next to Tom Tucker’s Brainstorm! (1995). (Collective biography. 8-10)
