This short and charming nonfiction book combines history with inspiration. Each of the 10 profiles of inventors and innovators hinges on a mistake or setback that must be overcome, and each profile ends with a lesson or thought to consider (e.g., "Sometimes what happens around is us random, and yet, persisting on intuition, despite mistakes, brings new results."). This book is pitched at upper elementary readers, but is sure to engage reluctant readers with its funny illustrations and graphic novel elements (each profile features a few comic-style pages). The collection is geographically and ethnically diverse, though it could have benefitted from having more than two profiles of women.

This was a fun combo of learning history, combined with some science and interesting comics! The book actually covers a ton of facts and really highlights engineering and design failures and the perseverance these early inventors had to keep going. The book includes the history of some inventors that I knew a lot about, and some that I didn’t know much on and would like to know even more about. They include Thomas Edison, Jan Matzeliger, Guglielmo Marconi, Wilson Greatbach, James Dyson, Margarete Steiff, Stephanie Louis Kwolek, Charles Goodyear, Percy Spencer and John Stith Pemberton.

My favourite part of the book was how inspiring some of the inventor quotes are! They seemed to embrace and welcome failure, something I don’t do enough of. All-in-all a very hopeful and important message mixed with some fun history.

The history is definitely geared towards kids that are a bit older, but with the great comics and some highlighted facts and quotes it could capture younger kids and adults alike. Great family story time reading!

*I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work."- Thomas Edison

Thank you Andrews McNeel Publishing and NetGalley for this fun ARC!

I adore this book! What a pleasure to read, and so filled with really interesting facts that I hadn't previously known —even about big name inventors and inventions I use every day.

For example, my favourite: I didn't know that Thomas Edison was partially deaf! (An exciting thing to know as I'm hard of hearing!) I'm always thrilled to have disabled rep in the books I read, especially in nonfiction, and it's even more exciting to me that this is a kids book which casually accepts disabilities as a part of life, without sad implications or an inspirational angle. The way Edison's mother accommodated for his hearing issues is written like a seamless and integral step in him becoming the inventor we know. Another of my other favourite moments: this book casually mentioning that inventor of the teddy bear, Margarete Steiff's legs were paralyzed by polio, which led to her using a wheelchair and having chronic pain in her hand —while emphasizing that she was energetic, ran her own tailoring business, and had a flourishing creative, independent life! I'm disabled and experience chronic pain in my hands and it's even made me think that I should try to get back into crocheting, because the book conveys so beautifully how much joy sewing the toys brought Margaret and her community.

The aim of this story —that these important inventors who revolutionized our lives made mistakes along the way and were not discouraged by them, but in fact leaned into them, to understand what went wrong, and found success by following that mindset— is conveyed fantastically! There are highlighted quotes making the messaging clear. I found those quotes encouraging and motivating, and think they would make great notes to write down and stick up on your kid's wall if they have a tendency to worry or fuss over their mistakes.

This is such an excellent collection of stories that I'm for sure calling my local indie bookstore tomorrow to preorder a copy for my dad, an over-60 year old man who has a fascination and passion for these kinda of stories and would absolutely love this book, too. "When Everything Went Wrong" would also make a great conversational coffee table book for family holiday trips or gatherings with friends. I learned so much fun history here, and it's taken me down some super cool Google rabbit holes to learn more.

All the illustrations are so charming with tons of personality and lovely textures, while still being clear and easy to understand. The balance between substantial text with pictures feels perfect. The format of this book makes it an awesome fit for kids with an interest in inventions who enjoy graphic novels, because for each person there's an intro page of text about who they are and what they invented, followed by a few pages of explanation about how they figured their invention out —and that explanation is told in graphic novel style, which is really fun and easy to follow!

These stories really are incredibly interesting, and lots of fun to talk about! I can't tell you how many times I stopped reading just to excitedly relay what I'd just read to my family. This book would be a wonderful gift for a kid who would enjoy reenacting what they've just read —which would also make a great comprehension exercise with an entertaining twist!

Only two things I think could be improved on: I would have loved for there to be more women and people of colour featured among the selection, of which I know there is no shortage of incredible inventors with stories to tell. Secondly, while the majority of the text is super clear and simple to read with no trouble, there's one cursive font used in smaller parts that is a bit difficult to read as an adult, so I imagine it may be even more tough for a kid to decipher.

I loved it! The art is great, the information is educational and the comic pages will be a favourite among kids.