Lion Lights: My Invention That Made Peace With Lions by Richard Turere and Shelly Pollock

When Richard Tuere was a nine-year-old boy guarding his father's cows, his biggest fear was the lions lurking in the nearby grass, waiting to grab an animal. Richard's family's farm bordered the south side of Nairobi National Park in Kenya. This meant many different wild animals including lions were roaming nearby. Their cows were valuable to Richard's family because they provided meat, milk and hides. But to the lion, a cow was a source of easy food!

Richard and his family are Maasai, a people who once wandered throughout Kenya's vast plains with their cows and goats. They travelled across the plains, following the wet and dry seasons. Now however, they live in small villages called manyattas. Their animals still need good grass and water, so during the dry season, they have to herd them further away from the manyatta. But this also meant risking an attack by lions.

At night Richard made sure the family's cows were inside their boma, an area fenced with thorny acacia branches. Although these branches kept the cattle in, they did not prevent the lions from attacking. 

Richard and other Maasai herders tried different ways to keep the lions at bay but nothing seemed to work. Richard tried a scarecrow, conservationists tried chain link fences, and the government tried payments to farmers for their lost cattle. But still the lions kept killing cattle and the Maasai kept killing lions.

The lions were an important part of Kenya's tourist industry: people came from all over the world to see them. So a solution needed to be found.

Richard loved to tinker with electronics, taking apart televisions and radios. Then one morning, when he was eleven-years-old, he found his father's bull dead inside their boma. This only made Richard more determined to find a solution to the lion problem.

His clue came one night when he noticed that whenever he walked around the boma with a flashlight the lions stayed away. Maybe he could use this discovery plus his skill with electronics to keep the lions away.

Discussion

Lion Lights tells the remarkable story of  a young Kenyan inventor, Richard Turere who designed "lion lights" to keep lions from preying on his father's cattle.

 Richard grew up on a farm bordering the southern, unfenced area of Nairobi National Park. The lack of fencing meant that zebra, wildebeest and other wildlife freely roamed out of the park onto nearby farms. They were followed by the lions who fed off these animals. However, lions, and to a lesser extent cheetahs found cattle to be much easier prey. Cattle are very important to the Maasai, as they are the currency in their culture. Their wealth is in their cattle.

After continuing attacks, Richard, at the age of eleven, discovered that lions were frightened of someone walking around the boma with a flashlight. He decided to develop a system of flashing lights set up around the perimeter of the boma. Initially, these were LED lights set up to flash using the light indicator from a vehicle, powered by a battery. This worked, reducing lions attacks almost immediately. He called this invention, Lion Lights.

In 2011, Paula Kambuhu, director of the Kenyan Land Conservation Trust and chairperson of the Nairobi National Park and her colleagues learned about Richard's unique invention during their field work that year. He had devised his Lion Lights without having had any prior training in electronics. Impressed, Kambuhu was able to help him obtain a scholarship to one of Kenya's top schools, Brookhouse International School. 

In 2013, Richard was invited to give a talk at the TED 2013 Conference in California. He was able to patent his invention, but not soon enough to receive money for what he had devised. Now twenty-two years old Richard is a graduate of The African Leadership University located in Kigali, Rwanda.

You can listen to Richard's TED Talk here. You can learn more about Richard's work through his website, lion-lights.org

Lion Lights offers young readers Richard Turere's remarkable story, highlighting is determination and creativity in spite of enormous odds. His story is one that demonstrates how one person can make a huge difference in the lives of many. Perhaps the more important message is that Richard also showed that sustainable solutions can be found to human-wildlife conflict.

Accompanying Richard's account are the realistic illustrations by artist Sonia Possentini. Lion Lights also includes a detailed note, About The Maasai, a list of Maasai words, and where to find more information on subjects relevant to this story. There is also a short biography of Richard Turere at the very back.

Book Details:

Lion Lights: My Invention That Made Peace With Lions by Richard Turere and Shelly Pollock
Thomaston, Maine: Tilbury House Publishers      2022

Flip! How The Frisbee Took Flight by Margaret Muirhead

Flip! uncovers the story behind the invention of the Frisbee.

One story is that the Frisbee originated out of Yale University. Joseph P. Frisbie whose father was a baker,  delivered desserts to the university.  The left-over tin pie plates, stamped Frisbie's Pies were soon being tossed around on campus by students!

In 1937, Fred Morrison and his girlfriend Lu were in the backyard of his home in Southern California after a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Someone picked up a tin popcorn lid and began flipping it through the air. This was so much fun that Fred and Lu became hooked on flipping their tin lid around until it became too dented to use. So they switched to pie plates and then cake pans! Fred and Lu had never heard of the Frisbie Pie plates but one day they would!

Later, while Fred and Lu were playing with their plate on the beach in California, another beach goer offered to buy it from Fred for a quarter. Fred realized he was on to something. Soon his new business venture of selling pans at parks and beaches allowed him to buy an engagement ring for Lu and in 1939 they were married.

With World War II, Fred enlisted as an Army Air Corps pilot but he continued to think about the "flying cake-pans". The post-war years saw intense public interest in unidentified flying objects, UFOs because of the reports of an alien aircraft crashing at Roswell, New Mexico. This got Fred thinking about how he might connect his "flying cake-pans" to the UFOs!

He decided to make his cake pans out of light, brightly coloured plastic and with help and financial backing of a friend, Warren Franscioni,  renamed them The Amazing Flyin-Saucer. He thought he had a hit, but the plastic was brittle in cold temperatures, meaning the flyin-saucers broke.

In 1955, Fred remarketed his product as the Pluto Platters, this time made out of a more pliable material. With the help of Lu, he sold them at fairs, dressed in a spacesuit costume. The success of the Pluto Platters captured the interest of Wham-O, a California toy company. They bought the rights to the design with the intent of marketing them all over the country.

But when they got to the New England area, they noticed that students there were already playing with discs but they called them Frisbies. Wham-O decided to change the name of their discs to Frisbees and the rest is history!

Discussion

Who knew the strange and convoluted history of the Frisbee, that plastic disc you can toss around? In this enjoyable picture book, Margaret Muirhead tells the story of how the Frisbee came to be with a delightful touch of humour. 

Although several people appeared to have the idea of tossing a plate or pan around for fun, it was, as Muirhead suggests in her Author's Note at the back, Fred Morrison's entrepreneurial spirit that took an neat idea and made it into a business. It is this quality that Muirhead highlights in her book, that persistence can pay off.

Helping the story along are the colourful, humorous 1950's and 1960's retro artwork, by illustrator, Adam Gustavson.

Book Details

Flip! How The Frisbee Took Flight by Margaret Muirhead
Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.  

The Boy Who Invented The Popsicle by Anne Renaud

Young Frank William Epperson wanted to be an inventor. He enjoyed practicing his cornet, having adventures with his younger brother Cray and learning magic tricks. He was also curious about the world around him. But what he loved most, was inventing. 

In his "laboratory", the back porch of his family's home, he tinkered and experimented. By the age of ten he had created a two-handled hand car that was faster than a one-handled handcar.

Frank loved to experiment with soda waters. He wanted to invent the most delicious soda water drink ever, so he would buy flavoured soda water powders from the nearby corner store. His little brother Cray would help by tasting Frank's concoctions. 

One day Frank was part of a miniature amusement park he and his friends set up. Frank was in charge of the soda water stand. However, something very unusual happened at this time: the temperature dropped below freezing. This was unusual because Frank lived in San Francisco, California, a part of the United States not known for becoming very cold. This led Frank to wonder what his soda drink might taste like if it were frozen. So he experimented by leaving his drink outside during that cold night. 

The next morning Frank awoke to find his drink frozen. He couldn't drink it, but he could lick it! He had invented a new treat. Frank grew up, married his sweetheart Mary Frances and had a large family. He never forgot about that treat he made as a kid. As frozen treats became more popular, Frank returned to his experiments and discovered a way to make frozen drinks on a stick. He had to solve several problems before his treats could be sold. And once he worked out solutions to those problems he then had to figure out a way to market his treats which he called the Ep-sicle. His children loved his treats too, calling them pop's sicle and eventually he changed the name to Popsicle!

Discussion

Now that it's summer, popsicles are on everyone's shopping list. But did you know they were accidentally discovered by an eleven-year-old boy in 1905 when he left his soda water mixture out on the porch? Frank Epperson, who made that accidental discovery, went on to patent his invention but later sold the rights when he needed the money.

Epperson's remarkable story is told in a fun and engaging way, accompanied by the colourful illustrations of Milan Pavlovic. The artwork was rendered in mixed media including pencil, colour inks and digitally. To help young readers understand the science behind the making of popsicles, Renaud has included easy experiments that can be done at home. These experiments explain the concepts involving liquids, mixtures and the effect of salt on the freezing point of water.

Renaud was able to source information for her book directly from Frank Epperson's family, his three surviving children and his granddaughters and grandsons. The author was able to access Epperson's written memoirs, business papers and photographs.Some of the photographs are shared in the detailed Author's Note at the back of the book. 

The Boy Who Invented The Popsicle is treat for those curious about how the popsicle came to be.

Book Details:

The Boy Who Invented The Popsicle by Anne Renaud
Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd.       2019