Apple. Mac. iPod. iPhone. iPad. Pixar. iTunes. These words have become common for many people in today's world. Thirty years ago, the way that people thought about computers, music, movies, and information was quite different. Many people have contributed to the changes in information technology, including Steve Jobs. Tracing Jobs' life and work from his early days until his last, this book from the Titans of Business series provides a close look at a man who challenged people to think differently. When I first saw this title from Capstone, I wondered if it would really have an audience. It's written for students, but many of today's students have grown up with the internet, iPods and mp3 players, and personal computers. Would the story of a man involved with computers in the 1970s and 80s be of interest to them? Would the man behind things like iPods and iPads be seen as revolutionary in the same way that he was to so many adults? Once I started reading, though, I saw how narrow my view was. This is as much the story of computers and technology as it is a biography of Steve Jobs. Yes, the main details of his life are in here, but it's also a look at how technology has changed so much in a very short time. Steve Jobs and the Titans of Business series would be a strong addition to the non-fiction books in a classroom or library. Like many of Capstone's non-fiction titles, it could be a strong resource for students working on a project or for kids who want to read a biography or a tech title for pleasure. Crowding the Book Truck Blog 3/11/2012 http://crowdingthebooktruck.blogspot.com/2012/03/steve-jobs-by-nick-hunter.html
Crowding the Book Truck Blog
My students, from as young as first graders to my fifth graders are hungry for information about Apple technologies and Steve Jobs. This book about Steve Jobs has just the right mix of informational text and images for my students. I will purchase this book for my collection and keep my fingers crossed that Capstone will publish something similar at a slightly lower reading level for my younger grades. - Amy BlaineNetGalley Review1/20/2012
This biography of Steve Jobs is part of a series call Titans of Business. The book looks at Steve Jobs starting with his childhood and early projects. The book is packed with information about Apple computers; why they stand out from the competition and why did Steve Jobs leaves Apple. It also includes the history of how computers have changed our lifestyle. The format is a little difficult to follow. It contains a section on assessing Steve Jobs and How to be an entrepreneur. There is a glossary, other books to find out more, web sites and an index. – Lucille Saunders, Retired Omaha Public Schools 12/29/2012
This brief biography puts its emphasis on Steve Jobs’ contribution as an innovator and an entrepreneur. It is logically organized, well-illustrated, and clearly written. This inspirational book charts the ups and downs that lead Jobs to be successful. It is the type of book destined to inspire another young entrepreneur to make his or her mark on history.
A topical biography for 11-14 year olds that is interesting and quite balanced and objective. It explores all areas of his life including dropping out of college and his business failures, his interest in Buddhism, his sometimes difficult to work with style, his creativity and inventiveness and how he has affected the way we live. Overall it is informative and bound to inspire young inventor-entrepreneurs. – Clare CannonGoodReads.com Review2/23/2012
Steve Jobs – his name is synonymous with the birth of the personal computer and with everything "i" –iphone, ipod, ipad, etc. In this new biography, the reader will learn about the man and the amazing things he achieved in his short life. Steve Jobs was born in 1955 and adopted as an infant by loving parents who had little money. His father liked to fix old cars but Steve didn’t enjoy getting his hands dirty. In elementary school, his teachers noted that he was bright but not motivated. His grades suffered and he even had one teacher who tried paying him to get him to finish his schoolwork. It wasn’t until a neighbor introduced the young man to electronics that he truly found something that interested him. Steve met a fellow student who also loved electronics, Stephen Wozniak, and together with a few other friends, they built things and experimented with electronics in their parents’ garages. It was through this experimentation that Apple Computer was eventually born. This new biography covers the early life of Jobs’ as well as his rise as a giant of the personal computer industry. The young reader will learn why Apple was so unique and why Jobs left the company he founded … and came back. It covers other achievements such as the founding and growth of Pixar Studios and the flop of NeXT. There is also a chapter on "How to be an Entrepreneur" for the young, fledgling entrepreneur, a glossary, index, and "find out more" section. Steve Jobs is an interesting, easy-to-read biography that doesn’t get bogged down in minutia. It includes numerous quotes, from Jobs and from others. The computer whiz had a reputation for being difficult to work with and the author doesn’t sugar-coat this aspect (although he doesn’t dwell on it either). There are some great pictures to accompany the text, plenty include Jobs and some will bring back long-forgotten memories for those "who were there" (Pong anybody?). Along the way, there are snippets included on what it takes to be an entrepreneur – raising money, building a business, etc. The author is to be commended for pointing out that to be an entrepreneur and really make a difference, a person might fail from time to time. He points out some of Jobs’ flops and notes that he never gave up. – Ellen Feld Feathered Quill Book Reviews 1/25/2012 Quill says: An excellent biography of Steve Jobs for the young reader that gives a good overview of the man, the myth, and the history of the personal computer. http://www.featheredquill.com/reviews/teen/hunter.shtml
Feathered Quill Book Reviews
Though written for a younger audience, Steve Jobs by Nick Hunter serves as a suitable introduction to the men, times, and institutions that built the first personal computers and shaped much of the electronics industry for 30 years. Jobs was involved at many levels, both inside and outside Apple. After leaving Apple in 1985, he created a new computer box, NeXT. Where Apple succeeded beyond his wildest dreams ("he never needed to work again"), NeXT was a colossal failure. From NeXT he jumped into the movie industry, purchasing a small computer animation studio called the Graphics Group - which he later renamed Pixar. Pixar was sold to Disney in 2006 for $74 billion. This was the beginning - ten years after leaving Apple, he would again become part of the Apple team. The iMac, the iPod, the iPad, and more, would follow, leaving former rivals in the dust. Hunter’s book also introduces us to Job’s struggle to understand business. From Wall Street to building brand loyalty were all lessons that Jobs had to learn. The book ends with a series of "appendixes" that contribute to the books value - five characteristics that define the successful entrepreneur, a glossary that defines many of the formal terms used in the book, and an index to the people, ideas, and products discussed in the book. The world lost a brilliant man on October 5, 2011, when Steve Jobs passed away. Nick Hunter has done a good job of introducing us to this man. - Posted by Pastor Floyd Pastor Patrick-Never on a Sunday blog1/19/2012
Pastor Patrick-Never on a Sunday blog
To read this story is to have a better understanding of the drive, determination, and passion that led Jobs to be at the pinnacle of businesses everywhere by 2011. Threaded throughout Jobs’ life story, author Nick Hunter includes suggestions – his own and those of others – on how to be a successfully independent entrepreneur.
This book was great for school libaries! I will be putting it on our schools purchause list this spring. The bubbles were each great further exploration/think points or places to start good discussion. GREAT book!!! - Carolyn Tepe NetGalley2/14/2012
The author, Nick Hunter, knows his craft. This biography is logically organized, well- illustrated, and clearly written. This brief biography puts its emphasis on Steve Jobs’ contribution as an innovator and an entrepreneur. In my opinion the best biographies are inspirational and chart the ups and downs that lead a person to be successful. Hunter hits the mark with this book by clearly charting Steve Jobs’ life’s work. The author’s quote (on page 28 under the boldface heading, Innovation) defines an innovator’s success: “The best entrepreneurs succeed because they do something that other people have not thought of yet. Job’s greatest successes came from doing something new or doing something in a new way. Partly, this innovation came because Jobs was naturally creative and curious about the world. He also encouraged innovation among the people he worked with.” The prose is interesting and makes the reader think. Should students be aware of titans of business? What makes a person successful? Who are entrepreneurs or inventors? Like Mark Zuckerman (Facebook) and Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple) did not finish college. Is college too constraining? The history is fascinating. Jobs’ career is marked by his passion to make easy-to-use, sleekly designed technology, despite setbacks. The iTunes stores and the iPod were introduced in 2001. What is striking is that the iPad came out in 2010—just two years ago! The iPad like the iPhone has revolutionized technology. Just as the iPod blew other MP3 players out of the water, both the iPhone and the iPad have become the gold standards for “smart phones” and tablet computers. The biography strikes a balance between the evolution of the Mac and Jobs’ career detour with education, NeXT, and Pixar before returning to Apple. Steve Jobs was a private man, sheltering his family; while the biography has many pictures of Jobs (even as an ill man); there is only one photo of Jobs with his wife and none of his four children. It seems fitting for the author, Hunter, to keep the focus on Jobs, just as Steve Jobs sheltered his family from the public, keeping the focus on the Apple products. In the back of the book in the “Find out more” section (p.46) are lists of books. The first entry is about gadgets. The biography will appeal to kids who like to build electronics. There are also listings about the evolution of the computer and books about Steve Jobs. The web sites listed (pp.46-47) include more about the history of Apple and Pixar. But readers should be warned that several of the addresses listed for the site did not work at the time of this review. Additionally, there is a section with “topics to research”—would a teacher assign students entrepreneurs? Pioneers? Digital Music? The history of the personal computer? Wow! Wouldn’t that be fun to research? This biography, Steve Jobs, part of the Titans of Business Series, would fit well in the elementary section in our library and appeal to a wide range of individuals: elementary students and teachers, technology teachers, instructors teaching English Speakers of Other Languages or literacy programs and people of all ages. This biography could spark budding entrepreneurs and business tykes. At a price of $32.00, this series is targeting libraries rather than classrooms. Few teachers have the type of classroom budget to allot $32.00 for one book regardless of the topic. This biography is timely, well written and deserves a spot on every library’s shelf. It is the type of book destined to inspire another young entrepreneur to make his or her mark on history.
Gr 4–6—This worshipful entry in the series gives the late, great entrepreneur's career a once-over so shallow that it never even mentions his birth parents, his formative sojourn to India, or Apple's iCloud. Focusing less on Jobs's personal life than on his public triumphs, the author points approvingly to his subject's often abrasive intensity, his maniacal fussiness about details, and his brilliant business strategy of turning Apple into a brand as keys to his string of uncommon successes. Notable associates, such as Steve Wozniak and Apple's design guru Jonathan Ive, do receive nods for their contributions, and Jobs's less-than-stellar experience with his NeXT start-up also gets brief attention. Ending with a simplistic recipe for entrepreneurial excellence (have a better idea, take chances, keep going), this mix of small color photos interspersed with sound-bite quotes and well-separated paragraphs of short-sentenced narrative is capped with a multimedia resource list and suggested research topics. It offers standard assignment information but little beyond the news of Jobs's demise that can't be drawn from older biographies, or in more specific detail in Karen Blumenthal's perceptive Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different (Feiwel & Friends, 2012).—John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library
