What Is LEGO?

Informationen zum Autor Jim O'Connor has written several books for Who HQ, including What Is Rock and Roll? , What Was Pompeii? , What Was the Battle of Gettysburg? , and What Were the Twin Towers? He lives in New York City. Klappentext Find out how these fun! stackable blocks became the most popular toys in the world. The LEGO toy company was founded in 1934 by a Danish carpenter who loved making wooden pull toys. From its humble beginnings! the company has lived up to its name--which comes from the Danish phrase meaning to always "play well"--encouraging children to use their imagination and build whatever they can dream up. In this book! author Jim O'Connor describes how a simple concept--small plastic bricks that snap together--morphed into a cultural phenomenon. What Is LEGO?     Billund is a very small town in Denmark, a country in northern Europe. Only about six thousand people live there. It is far away from Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen. But every year over a million and a half people visit Billund.   Why?   Because Billund is the home of the LEGO toy company. And LEGO fans from all over the world go there to visit LEGO’s main factory. There, nineteen billion LEGO pieces are made every year. That’s right. Nineteen billion. Those pieces come in dozens of different shapes, colors, and sizes that are used in countless different LEGO sets. Besides the original LEGO factory in Billund, there are four others, in the Czech Republic, Hungary, China, and Mexico. Altogether they make over ninety billion LEGO bricks a year. They also make seven hundred million tiny rubber tires for LEGO cars and trucks.   In Billund, the crowds of LEGO fans also visit LEGOLAND. It opened in 1968 and is a thirty--five--acre amusement park for children eleven or younger. There’s the Vikings River Splash, Lloyd’s Laser Maze, and roller coasters such as The Dragon, which is based on LEGO Knights Kingdomtm sets, as well as DUPLO planes, LEGO cars to ride, and more. But the heart of the park is Miniland, a complete miniature city made from more than twenty million LEGO bricks.   So how did the LEGO company end up in Billund? And how has LEGO grown to be the most successful toy company in the world?   The LEGO story starts in the 1930s with a very skillful carpenter who happened to live in Billund. His name was Ole Kirk Christiansen. He’s among the most famous people you’ve never heard of!     Chapter 1: A Toy Maker     Ole Kirk Christiansen was born in 1891 in a small Danish village called Filskov. He was the youngest of ten children. The Christiansens had little money. Even as a young child, Ole helped work on the family farm. For fun, he liked to carve toys for himself out of wood. As a young man, he worked for one of his older brothers and learned to become a carpenter.   After a few years, Ole moved first to Germany and then to Norway. He was hoping to find better work for someone with his skills. But in 1916, after Ole met and married Kirstine Sorensen, the young couple moved back to Denmark and settled in the quiet farming village of Billund.   Ole made a living fixing up old homes and building new houses. He had a shop where, besides furniture, he made handy housewares like ironing boards, stools, and ladders.   Ole and Kirstine had three sons. In 1924, two of the boys accidentally set fire to the carpentry shop. They had been playing with wood chips. In no time, the shop burned to the ground. So did the Christiansens’ house, which was right next door to the shop. All of a sudden, Ole had no home for his family and no workplace.   Ole, however, did not throw up his hands and give up. That was not his nature, even though by 1926 there was another Christiansen son to feed. He rebuilt his house as well as the shop, which ended up being bigger than th...

Détails du produit

• Auteurs: Jim O'Connor
• Edition: Penguin Young Readers US
• Langues: Anglais
• Format d'édition: Livre Relié
• Sortie: 05.05.2020
• EAN: 9780593092958
• ISBN: 978-0-593-09295-8
• Pages: 112
• Dimensions: 146 mm x 201 mm x 13 mm