Famous Fails!: Mighty Mistakes, Mega Mishaps, & How a Mess Can Lead to Success!

by Crispin Boyer

Overview

This fun book of quirky failures and famous flops will keep kids laughing while they learn the importance of messing up in order to get it right.  Science, architecture, technology, entertainment — there are epic fails and hilarious goof-ups from every important field. Silly side features help to analyze the failures: "Lesson Learned," "It Could be Worse!," "Losing Combinations," and a "Fail Scale" help readers navigate the different kinds and scopes of the mistakes made. Read to learn what went wrong, what went right, and what kids can learn from each failed attempt.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426325489
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	700,038
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1080L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

CRISPIN BOYER lives in Xcalak, a small fishing village in Mexico, where he writes about history, wildlife, and technology. He and his wife live with their flock of hens, a turkey, two roosters, and a guard goose.

His 2013 cover story for National Geographic Kids magazine, Return of the Missing Lynx, won an Eddie Award for Best Single Article, Youth/Teen. The American Library Association chose his book This or That? as one of 2015's top picks for reluctant young-adult readers.

Editorial Reviews

2016-11-16
If at first you don't succeed, then at least enjoy the epic failures of others, for as well as the pleasures of schadenfreude, there are lessons to be learned. Boyer presents 128 pages of whopping failures, flubs, and snafus—and even a few unexpected winners—in this fizzy selection. It's busily designed, with squibs of text, photos, bright colors, speech balloons, and a boxed item for each failure with timeworn words of encouragement: "Lesson Learned." Some of the examples are just plain flops (does anybody really miss the Segway?), but some are dangerous, too, as in those weighted, spiked lawn darts. "Nearly 5,000 kids wound up in emergency rooms." (There is no "Lesson Learned" for that fiasco.) There are also failures that turned into winners—Slinky started life as a stabilizer for sensitive battleship equipment, which it didn't stabilize—and happy accidents, such as the birth of the Popsicle after its 11-year-old inventor noticed his drink had frozen overnight. Then there are the perils of time and publishing. "The Chicago Cubs baseball team once seemed unstoppable," back in 1907 and 1908, "[but] they haven't won a World Series since." An unusual and satisfying collection, and who will quibble with the Chicago Cubs' "Lesson Learned": "Believe you will succeed!"? (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

"An unusual and satisfying collection." -- Kirkus

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From the Publisher