Teen Trailblazers: 30 Daring Boys Whose Dreams Changed the World

by Jennifer Calvert, Vesna Asanovic (Illustrator)

Overview

The impossible is possible when kids dare to dream big!

Discover the courageous kids who aimed high and made a difference! Every great scientist, activist, writer, and inventor started out as a child with a dream. With illustrations by Vesna Asanovic, Jennifer Calvert's Teen Trailblazers: 30 Daring Boys Whose Dreams Changed the World explores the stories of 30 of these remarkable kids, whose passions led to lifesaving medical treatments, revolutionary inventions, and history-making achievements. From groundbreaking innovators like Boyan Slat and the Wright brothers; to powerful advocates like Nelson Mandela, Harvey Milk, and David Hogg; and creative minds like Walt Disney, Fred Rogers, and John and Hank Green, each one turned his dreams for a better world into reality.

Dive into the amazing adventures, intrepid efforts, and hard-won victories of trailblazers such as:

- Louis Braille

- Wilbur & Orville Wright

- Mohandas Gandhi

- Jonas Salk

- David Attenborough

- Barack Obama

- Satoshi Tajiri

- Lin-Manuel Miranda

- Jaques Cousteau

- Boyan Slat

and other ordinary boys who dared to do incredible, impossible, and inspiring things.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250281616
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

JENNIFER CALVERT is a writer, editor, and all-around book-loving nerd. When she’s not highlighting the accomplishments of incredible young women, you’ll find her curled up with a soft cat and a hardcover. She is the author of Teen Trailblazers.

Vesna Asanovic is an artist and illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. She holds a BDes from Ontario College of Art and Design. She works primarily digitally with a particular interest in bright, bold colors and graphic shapes. In her free time you can find Vesna drawing in her sketchbook on a sunny patio.

Table of Contents

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bill Gates

Louis Braille

Mahatma Ghandi

Barack Obama

Lin-Manuel Miranda

David Hogg

David Attenborough

Boyan Slat

Ernest Shackleton

Jonas Salk

Colin Kaepernick

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Fred Rogers

Bryan Stevenson

Orville and Wilbur Wright

John & Hank Green

Nelson Mandela

Jacques Cousteau

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Harvey Milk

Walt Disney

Alan Shepard

Frederick Douglass

Alexander Hamilton

Bucky Fuller

Roberto Burle Marx

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Oscar Ekponimo

Satoshi Tajiri

Editorial Reviews

2022-06-22
Thumbnail biographies highlighting formative boyhood experiences of 30 exceptional men past and present who have had a lasting impact.

The highlighted figures include 18th-century mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker, World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, and gay activist Harvey Milk. Each chapter follows the same template: a few bullet points, which include dates of birth and death (if applicable), an impactful quote from the subject, a short biography, and interesting sidebar facts. This last element often provides the most interesting information in the book, like the fact that Louis Braille found a way to translate sheet music into braille, and Jacques Cousteau developed his love of the sea when he took up swimming as therapy after breaking both of his arms in a car crash. As for youthful accomplishments, Nelson Mandela was expelled from university for protesting, and David Hogg famously became an activist after surviving the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Other notable inclusions are quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, and Japanese video game developer and Pokémon inventor Satoshi Tajiri. Calvert’s crisp introduction pinpoints her hope that these brief, fact-filled portraits may spur readers to explore further. The book’s value in this regard is unfortunately weakened by a lack of recommended further reading, and its authority is undermined by an absence of sources. The text follows a White default. Color illustrations brighten the volume.

A cursory introduction to potential male role models. (Nonfiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews