{"id":43395,"date":"2025-09-15T23:07:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T03:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43395"},"modified":"2025-09-15T23:07:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T03:07:39","slug":"review-of-mattie-and-the-machine-by-lynn-ng-quezon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43395","title":{"rendered":"Review of Mattie and the Machine, by Lynn Ng Quezon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Mattie and the Machine<\/em><\/p>\n

by Lynn Ng Quezon<\/p>\n

Santa Monica Press, 2022. 264 pages.
\nReview written April 23, 2023, from my own copy, sent by the publisher.<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed Mattie and the Machine<\/em>. I think part of its appeal is that as a woman studying math in college, I did feel like I had to prove myself.<\/p>\n

This novel tells the true story of Margaret Knight, a mechanic and inventor. She starts out the book working as a mechanic at a bag-making factory. But when she learns that the male mechanic \u2013 and all the men \u2013 are making more than her, simply because they\u2019re men, she confronts the owner.<\/p>\n

And a challenge is born. Mattie is challenged to make a new machine that will produce the new square-bottomed bags. But her machine has to do it more quickly than the male mechanic\u2019s machine.<\/p>\n

The challenge takes up the first half of the book. Once Mattie has her machine, she\u2019s urged to get a patent. But there are obstacles all along the way, and no one wants to work with a woman. And then she gets betrayed and has to go to court to get credit for her invention.<\/p>\n

The storytelling style in this book is old-fashioned and reminds me of books I read when I was a kid, though Mattie is fifteen. It\u2019s a little slow-moving, but I was fascinated by Mattie\u2019s quest to prove herself.<\/p>\n

The book closes with a copy of Margaret Knight\u2019s patent. I wish that there was an author\u2019s note about what is fact and what is fiction and what she went on to do with her life. How many more patents did she get? Did she ever marry, and was it to someone who appeared in this novel? For that matter, how many of the characters in the novel were actual people. This book made me want to find a biography of her life to find out how much was true and what this amazing woman went on to do.<\/p>\n

Wikipedia article on Margaret Knight<\/a>
\nNgQuezon.wordpress.com<\/a>
\nsantamonicapress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/mattie_and_the_machine.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mattie and the Machine by Lynn Ng Quezon Santa Monica Press, 2022. 264 pages. Review written April 23, 2023, from my own copy, sent by the publisher. I really enjoyed Mattie and the Machine. I think part of its appeal is that as a woman studying math in college, I did feel like I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43395"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45721,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43395\/revisions\/45721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}