Book cover of Hedy Lamarr's Double Life: Hollywood Legend and Brilliant Inventor

Book description

Age range 5+

To her adoring public, Hedy Lamarr was a glamorous movie star. But in private, she was something more: a brilliant inventor. Now Laurie Wallmark and Katy Wu, who collaborated on Sterling's critically acclaimed picture-book biography Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code, tell the inspiring story of how,…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Hedy Lamarr's Double Life as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love reading about women who break the mold-who do something everyone says they can’t.

Hedy Lamar was a famous actress, but she said herself, “People seem to think because I have a pretty face...I’m stupid.” She wasn’t! Among her many inventions was a glow-in-the-dark dog collar. Her most famous scientific work came from designing a frequency hopping system, that is still used in many electronics today.

Hedy Lamarr’s Double Life appealed to me because it speaks to a world in which girls and women are still judged by their appearance, regardless of what they’re actually doing. “People seem to think because I have a pretty face I’m stupid,” Hedy Lamarr commented. “I have to work twice as hard as anyone else to convince people I have something resembling a brain.” In fact, she was a brilliant inventor in addition to a glamorous Hollywood star. Her many inventions included frequency hopping, a technology essential to cell phones and other devices used today. (And no, she wasn’t…

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Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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