Alliance of Artists’ Communities. American Creativity at Risk: Restoring Creativity as a Priority in Public Policy, Cultural Philanthropy, and Education. Portland, Ore.: Alliance of Artists’ Communities, 1996.

Amabile, Theresa M., and Stanley S. Gryskiewicz. Creativity in the R&D Laboratory. Greensboro, N.C.: Center for Creative Leadership, 1991.

Auerbach, Stevanne. Dr. Toy's Smart Play: How to Raise a Child with a High PQ (Play Quotient). New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

——, F.A.O. Schwarz: Toys for a Lifetime: Enhancing Childhood Through Play. New York: Universe Books, 1999.

Bedi, Joyce. “Lady Edisons: Women Inventors in the 20th Century.” Inventors’ Digest (September/October 1999): 18-23.

Bekoff, Marc. “Playing with Play: What Can We Learn About Cognition, Negotiation, and Evolution?” In The Evolution of Mind, eds. Denise Dellarosa Cummins and Colin Allen, 162-182. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Beretta, Shirley, and Gayle Privette. “Influence of Play on Creative Thinking.” Perceptual and Motor Skills 71 (1990): 659-666.

Boden, Margaret A. The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms. New York: Basic Books, 1991.

——, ed. Dimensions of Creativity. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1994.

Bransford, John D., and Barry S. Stein. The Ideal Problem Solver. New York: W. H. Freeman and Co., 1984.

Brosterman, Norman. Inventing Kindergarten. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997.

Brown, David E. Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2002.

Brown, Kenneth A. Inventors at Work: Interviews with 16 Notable American Inventors. Redmond, Wash.: Tempus Books of Microsoft Press, 1988.

Bruce, Robert V. Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973.

Carlson, W. Bernard. “Building Thomas Edison's Laboratory at West Orange, New Jersey: A Case Study in Using Craft Knowledge for Technological Invention, 1886-1888.” History of Technology 13 (1991): 150-167.

——. “Interpreting Invention as a Cognitive Process: The Case of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Telephone.” Science, Technology, and Human Values 15 (1990): 131-164.

Ceppi, Giulio, and Michele Zini, eds. Children, Spaces, Relations: Metaproject for an Environment for Young Children. Milan, Italy: Domus Academy Research Center, 1998.

Coe, Lewis. The Telegraph: A History of Morse’s Invention and Its Predecessors in the United States. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers, 1993.

Cohen, David. The Development of Play. London: Routledge, 1993.

Cross, Gary. Kids’ Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Creativity: Flow and The Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.

Dasgupta, Subrata. Creativity in Invention and Design: Computational and Cognitive Explorations of Technological Originality. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

——. Technology and Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. “Children and Computer Technology.” The Future of Children 10, no. 2 (fall/winter 2000).

Eber, Dorothy Harley. Genius at Work: Images of Alexander Graham Bell. New York: The Viking Press, 1982.

Feldman, David Henry, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Howard Gardner. Changing the World: A Framework for the Study of Creativity. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1994.

Ferguson, Eugene S. Engineering and the Mind’s Eye. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1992.

Friedel, Robert D., and Paul Israel, with Bernard S. Finn. Edison's Electric Light: Biography of an Invention. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986.

Gardner, Howard. Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. New York: Basic Books, 1993.

——. “Creativity: An Interdisciplinary Perspective.” Creativity Research Journal 1 (1988): 8-26.

Getzels, Jacob W. “Problem Finding and the Inventiveness of Solution.” Journal of Creative Behavior 9 (1975): 12-118.

Ghiselin, Brewster, ed. The Creative Process: Reflections on Invention in the Arts and Sciences. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1985.

Goldstein, Jeffrey H., ed. Toys, Play and Child Development. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Gopnik, Alison, Andrew N. Meltzoff, and Patricia K. Kuhl. The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1999.

Gorman, Michael E., and Julia K. Kagiwada. “Invention, Design, and Discovery: A Transdisciplinary Quest.” New Literary History 26 (1995): 627-640.

Gruber, Howard E., Glenn Terrell, and Michael Wertheimer, eds. Contemporary Approaches to Creative Thinking. New York: Atherton Press, 1963.

Hewitt, Karen, and Louise Roomet. Educational Toys in America: 1800 to the Present. Burlington, Vt.: The Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, 1979.

Hindle, Brook. Emulation and Invention. New York: New York University Press, 1981.

Hirshberg, Jerry. The Creative Priority: Driving Innovative Business in the Real World. New York: HarperBusiness, 1998.

Hoffreth, Sandra L., and Jack Sandberg. Changes in Children’s Time, 1981-1997. Ann Harbor, Mich.: Institution for Social Research, University of Michigan, 1998.

Hughes, Fergus P. Children, Play, and Development. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.

Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston: The Beacon Press, 1955.

Israel, Paul B. Edison: A Life of Invention. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1998.

——. From the Machine Shop to the Industrial Laboratory: Telegraphy and the Changing Context of American Invention, 1830-1920. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

Ives, Patricia Carter. Creativity and Inventions: The Genius of Afro-Americans and Women in the United States and Their Patents. Arlington, Va.: Research Unlimited, 1987.

James, Portia P. The Real McCoy: African-American Invention and Innovation, 1619-1930. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.

John-Steiner, Vera. Notebooks of the Mind: Explorations of Thinking. Albuquerque, N.Mex.: University of New Mexico Press, 1985.

Johnson, James E., James F. Christie, and Thomas D. Yawkey. Play and Early Childhood Development. New York: Longman, 1999.

Kafai, Yasmin, and Mitchel Resnick, eds. Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996.

Kelley, Tom, with Jonathan Littman. The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm. New York: Currency Books, 2001.

Kiely, Thomas. “The Idea Makers.” Technology Review 96 (January 1993): 32-40.

Kock, Winston E. The Creative Engineer: The Art of Inventing. New York: Plenum Press, 1978.

Maccoby, Michael, Ronald K. Jurgen, Tekla S. Perry, and George F. Watson. “Innovative Genius: The Innovative Mind at Work.” IEEE Spectrum 28 (December 1991): 22-35.

Macdonald, Anne L. Feminine Ingenuity: Women and Invention in America. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992.

Mergen, Bernard. “Made, Bought, and Stolen: Toys and the Culture of Childhood.” In Small Worlds: Children and Adolescents in America 1850-1950, eds. Elliott West and Paula Petrik, 86-106. Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas, 1992.

——. Play and Playthings. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982.

Miller, Arthur I. Insights of Genius: Imagery and Creativity in Science and Art. New York: Copernicus, 1996.

Mokyr, Joel. The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Mowery, David C., and Nathan Rosenberg. Paths of Innovation: Technological Change in 20th-Century America. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

National Inventors Hall of Fame. The 2000 National Inventors Hall of Fame Commemorative Book. Akron, Ohio: National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2000.

Perkins, David N. The Mind’s Best Work. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981.

Pesce, Mark. The Playful World: How Technology is Transforming Our Imagination. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000.

Petroski, Henry. Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996.

——. “Work and Play.” American Scientist 87 (1999): 208-212.

Piaget, Jean. Biology and Knowledge: An Essay on the Relations Between Organic Regulations and Cognitive Processes. Translated by Beatrix Walsh. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1971.

Platt, Richard. Smithsonian Visual Timeline of Inventions. London: Dorling Kindersley, 1994.

Pretzer, William S., ed. Working at Inventing: Thomas A. Edison and the Menlo Park Experience. Dearborn, Mich.: Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, 1989.
Rabinow, Jacob. Inventing for Fun and Profit. San Francisco: San Francisco Press, Inc., 1990.

Resnick, Mitchel. “Technologies for Lifelong Kindergarten.” Educational Technology Research and Development 46, no. 4 (1998).

Resnick, Mitchel, Robbie Berg, and Michael Eisenberg. “Beyond Black Boxes: Bringing Transparency and Aesthetics Back to Scientific Investigation.” Journal of the Learning Sciences 9 (2000): 7-30.

Richardson, Jacques G., ed. Windows on Creativity and Invention. Mount Airy, Md.: Lomond, 1988.

Rogers, Cosby S., and Janet K. Sawyers. Play in the Lives of Children. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1988.

Root-Bernstein, Michèle and Robert. “Imagination and the Museum: Sparking Genius in a Children’s Museum.” Hand to Hand 16 (spring 2001): 1-5.

——. Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1999.

Root-Bernstein, Robert Scott. “Creative Process As a Unifying Theme of Human Cultures.” Daedalus 113 (1984): 197-219.

——. Discovering, Inventing and Solving Problems at the Frontiers of Science. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989.

Root-Bernstein, Robert S., Maurine Bernstein, and Helen Garnier. “Correlations between Avocations, Scientific Style, Work Habits, and Professional Impact of Scientists.” Creativity Research Journal 8, no. 2 (1995): 115-137.

Rothenberg, Albert. The Emerging Goddess: The Creative Process in Art, Science, and Other Fields. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Rothschild, Joan, ed. Women, Technology and Innovation. Oxford, England: Pergamon Press, 1982.

Runco, Mark A. Problem Finding, Problem Solving, and Creativity. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1994.

——, ed. “Creativity from Childhood Through Adulthood: The Developmental Issue.” New Directions for Child Development 72 (1996).

Runco, Mark A., and Robert S. Albert, eds. Theories of Creativity. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1990.

Russ, Sandra W., Andrew L. Robins, and Beth A. Christiano. “Pretend Play: Longitudinal Prediction of Creativity and Affect in Fantasy in Children.” Creativity Research Journal 12, no. 2 (1999): 129-139.

Saracho, Olivia N., and Bernard Spodek, eds. Multiple Perspectives on Play in Early Childhood Education. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Schrage, Michael. Serious Play: How the World’s Best Companies Simulate to Innovate. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.

Singer, Dorothy G. and Jerome L. The House of Make-Believe: Children's Play and the Developing Imagination. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990.

Smith, Peter K. “Does Play Matter? Functional and Evolutionary Aspects of Animal and Human Play.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 5 (1982): 139-184.

Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the 19th Century’s On-Line Pioneers. New York: Walker and Company, 1998.

Stanley, Autumn. Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1993.

Sternberg, Robert J., ed. The Nature of Creativity: Contemporary Psychological Perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Sutton-Smith, Brian. The Ambiguity of Play. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997.

——. A History of Children’s Play. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981.

——. “The Role of Toys in the Instigation of Playful Creativity.” Creativity Research Journal 5 (1992): 3-11.

——. Toys as Culture. New York: Gardner Press, Inc., 1986.

Topal, Cathy W., and Lella Gandini. Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials. Worcester, Mass.: Davis Publications, Inc., 1999.

Wallace, Doris B., and Howard E. Gruber, eds. Creative People at Work: Twelve Cognitive Case Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Wartella, Ellen, Barbara O’Keefe, and Ronda Scantlin. Growing Up with Interactive Media: What We Know and What We Don’t About the Impact of New Media on Children. New York: John and Mary Markle Foundation, 2000.

Weber, Robert J. Forks, Phonographs, and Hot Air Balloons: A Field Guide to Inventive Thinking. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Weber, Robert J., and David N. Perkins, eds. Inventive Minds: Creativity in Technology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Weiner, Robert Paul. Creativity and Beyond: Cultures, Values, and Change. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 2000.

Weisberg, Robert W. Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1993.

Wilson, Frank R. The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998.

——. “Hand-Made Minds.” Waldorf Research Bulletin (fall 1999).

Especially for Younger Readers

“African American Inventors.” Cobblestone 13, no. 2 (February 1992).

Ardley, Neil. How Things Work: 100 Ways Parents and Kids Can Share the Secret of Technology. New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishers, 1997.

Blashfield, Jean F. Women Inventors, 4 vols. Minneapolis, Minn.: Capstone Press, 1996.

Caney, Steven. Steven Caney’s Invention Book. New York: Workman Publishing, 1985.

——. Steven Caney’s Kids’ America. New York: Workman Publishing, 1978.

Casey, Susan Mary. Women Invent: Two Centuries of Discoveries That Have Shaped Our World. Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press, 1997.

Cook, James G., and the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation. The Thomas Edison Book of Easy and Incredible Experiments. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1988.

Erlbach, Arlene. The Kids’ Invention Book. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publications Co., 1997.

“Everybody Plays.” Click 2, no. 10 (December 1999).

Jones, Charlotte Foltz. Mistakes That Worked: Forty Familiar Inventions and How They Came To Be. New York: Doubleday, 1991.

Karnes, Frances A., and Suzanne M. Bean. Girls and Young Women Inventing. Minneapolis, Minn.: Free Spirit Pub., 1995.

King, David C. Thomas Alva Edison: The King of Inventors. Lowell, Mass.: Discovery Enterprises, 1995.

Macaulay, David, with Neil Ardley. The New Way Things Work. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998.

McKissack, Patricia and Frederick. African-American Inventors. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1994.

Quiri, Patricia Ryon. Alexander Graham Bell. New York: Franklin Watts, 1991.

Roberts, Royston and Jeanie. Lucky Science: Accidental Discoveries from Gravity to Velcro, With Experiments. New York: John Wiley, 1995.

Showell, Ellen H., and Fred M. B. Amram. From Indian Corn to Outer Space: Women Invent in America. Peterborough, N.H.: Cobblestone Publishing, 1995.

Sobey, Ed. Inventing Stuff. Palo Alto, Calif.: Dale Seymour Publications, 1996.

Sullivan, Otha Richard. African American Inventors. New York: Wiley, 1998.

——. African American Women Scientists and Inventors. New York: Wiley, 2002.

Taylor, Barbara. I Wonder Why Zippers Have Teeth and Other Questions About Inventions. New York: Kingfisher, 1995.

“Thomas Edison.” Cobblestone 1, no. 2 (February 1980).

Tucker, Tom. Brainstorm! The Stories of Twenty American Kid Inventors. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1995.

Wilkinson, Philip. 100 Greatest Inventions. Danbury, Conn.: Grolier Educational, 1997.

“Women Inventors.” Cobblestone 15, no. 6 (June 1994).

Zubrowski, Bernie. Blinkers and Buzzers: Building and Experimenting with Electricity and Magnetism. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1991.

Video Resources

The Promise of Play, Stuart Brown and David Kennard, executive producrs. A production of The Institute for Play and InCA (Independent Communications Associates Inc.), 2000. Available through Direct Cinema Limited (www.directcinema.com).

back to top