Henry Ford: Young Man With Ideas

by Hazel B. Aird, Catherine Ruddiman

In this edition of one of the most popular educational series for children ever published, young readers will learn about Henry Ford’s childhood.

Ford’s natural curiosity and mechanical ability was apparent during his boyhood on a Michigan farm, leading him to a life of success, creation, entrepreneurship.

In Ford’s installment of the Young Man With Ideas series, children of all ages can learn about how the man who founded the Ford Motor Company spend his youth.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, American History, Chapter Books, Biography Memoir

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable and perfect for my seven-year-old son. One of his favorite books is Farmer Boy and he loves engineering (particularly mechanical engineering) and this book was a perfect blend of the two. I have a feeling he and Henry Ford would have been fast friends ;-)

The Childhood of Famous Americans series is written by a variety of authors, and I'm finding some are superior to others. This is a good one. You feel part of Ford's life, rather than just a spectator marched past noteworthy moments of his history, and it does a good job of showing not only a few "everyday life" moments but also how Ford was so driven and inspired with tinkering and trying out his ideas from a young age. It does span beyond childhood with roughly the second half covering his adult years with inventing the quadricycle on to the Model T and his friendship with Thomas Edison. We enjoyed the personal connection of my dad being from Dearborn and, if we ever get to that part of the country, would love to visit Greenfield Village and see the history Ford preserved there.

Note that Catherine Ruddiman (co-author) is the niece of Henry Ford -- her mother was Ford's sister, Margaret, to whom she dedicates the book, and her father was the brother of Edsel Ruddiman (Edsel was a dear friend of Henry Ford's and Henry and his wife named their son after him). This book is based on "Memories of My Brother Henry Ford" by Catherine's mother, Margaret Ford Ruddiman., which is, unfortunately, no longer in print.

[Caleb Shumaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book about Henry Ford interested me because I've heard bits and pieces about him, but I've never heard the whole story. The story goes through in chronological order with him starting about six years old asking questions about the teakettle and clock in the kitchen. I learned right away that Henry was a very curious little guy. I thought the book did a really nice job describing how Henry always wanted to be doing something with tools in his hands. I loved how the book made it feel like you were in Henry's shoes and making the decisions along with him. I didn't like how it skipped sections of Henry's life, like his middle school years and what he learned. I also disliked how broad it was about the details of his first horseless carriage. I wanted to get a better picture in my brain of what it would look like in person. I think it's awesome how all of his hard work on his invention really paid off in front of his eyes. It was hard to believe that a horse rider could race one of Henry's race cars without a whole lot of practice. It seemed like it would be hard to get the hang of one of those cars, especially if you're used to something like a horse. I thought it was a good resolution that Henry turned his community he grew up in into a museum because the museum really draws my interest. I hope in the future I could get to go and see it. Overall, this book really did a good job describing Henry's everyday life and how much different it is compared to today's world.

[Dalton Esbaum]

This book was a good book to me because I can relate to it because I use to own a 1924 model tt one ton truck and I am very interested in henry ford. I learned about the life of Henry Ford in his young life. It was very interesting learn about his ideas and inventions.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to read prior to visiting Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan outside Detroit. Living history of Henry Ford’s childhood. Book is mainly living book of his childhood, but does cover adulthood and the assembly line and model T.

[GheenGirls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turtle: great! Return to library.

[Alma kokthi · Rating 1 out of 5]

its very good

[Sage Mines · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my second book I read "Henry Ford: Young Man With Ideas" by Hazel B. Arid. This is the a biography about Henry Ford's life like how he lived and what he liked to do. Henry liked to tinker with watches when he was young before he got older and got into bigger things. He came up with the idea for the first automobile when he complained about horse back being uncomfortable. My favorite part of the book was when Henry completely forgot about what he was supposed to be doing when he saw all the machines. That was my favorite part because I sometimes forget what I was supposed to be doing just like him. Like this one time I was at dinner and I just completely froze in my tracks when I was walking to the bathroom. I liked this part because it showed that even people who made big companies when they were kids made mistakes. The author's purpose was to tell people about Henry Ford's life and how he invented the automobile.This was a great biography and I learned a lot about Henry Ford's life as a kid.

I connected with this book when Henry fixed the watches before he started fixing bigger machines because I like to do something small before I go to something bigger. Like when I played hockey I shot with lighter pucks before heavy ones. I learned that Henry Ford called the first car the "Horseless Carriage". He called it that because he designed it to look the most like a carriage, but without horses. I would recommend this book to people looking for a good quick informational biography. If you like books to be long and have very complex words than I would not recommend this book to you. This was a great book and I liked it a lot.

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry Ford is a brilliant young man growing up in a farm wanting to expand his horizons and become a inventor. The story tells his life growing up as he try's to be a great inventor and gets into trouble for it. Henry then goes on to marry and use his kitchen to lay out his engine for a new invention called a car. It takes Henry many tries and he finally gets it right. The first car was tiny as a box with wheels and a engine called a quadricycle. People first don't like his idea but as the invention gets easier to produce and cheaper and soon very America citizen has one. Without Henry, we would have to walk miles and miles to places.

[Hewesmarty hewes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry was a kid that just wanted to no every thing. He asked so many questions that his mom would go ask him to go run in the corn field or swim in the stream.One time he asked his mom how the cloak worked and she said why don't you find out so he took it apart. he also took apart his brothers wagon then he grew up and when to school and you have to read this book to find out what happens.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

WELL I HAD TO READ THIS BOOK FOR ENGLISH SO I GUESS I WELL PUT IT ON HERE!!! WELL AS A MATTER OF FACT I KNOW THAT I ONLY GAVE THIS BOOK A 2 STARS IT IS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD!! THE COVER MIGHT LOOK LIKE ZZZZZZ BUT AS THEY ALWAYS SAY DONT JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!!!~ LOL

[Gevon Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I literally finished this book in a few ours due to how interested I was in it. Right out of Barnes and Noble I began to read it- in the streetlight none-the-less. And this was in the third grade, and I remember every bit of information from it!

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good book about a boy who made cars, when back then they used carriages. So they called it the horseless carriage. And then he made lots of them and sold them all. When he was a boy he liked to discover how things worked. He was very curious.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. I like to learn about people and how they got to where they were. I especially wish I had read this book before I went to Greenfield Village. I think I would have appreciated it a LOT more!!

[Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like it you should read this book it is very intresting and is a biograph.

[Jaeger Matthias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Own.

Henry built a kind of car and the neighbors were still asleep and when he turned on the car , it had a really big noise and it woke up the neighbors.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very interesting because it is very specific. The reader feels as if they are part of Henry's childhood.

[Samuel Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew a biography could be one of your favorite books!

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrowed. It was interesting to learn about someone who started a car company.

[Nevada Libert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS BOOK SOOO MUCH

[Rafayel Mnatsakanyan]

_)))

[Hayley Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to read this book so let me read the damn book plz

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

liked it.