Written especially for a young audience, a must-read biography of Steve Jobs: visionary, entrepreneur, inventor, and cofounder of Apple. Visionary. Pioneer. Little terror. Entrepreneur. Inventor. College dropout. Creative genius. These are just a few of the words used to describe the late Steve Jobs, cofounder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Available in both paperback and hardcover, Patricia Lakin’s biography for middle-grade readers tells the captivating and inspirational story of the ‘Thomas Edison’ of our time. "Even reluctant middle-grade readers will devour Patricia Lakin's (the Max & Mo series) biography of Steve Jobs--a fascinating portrait of a kid who breaks nearly every rule and yet rises to astronomical heights." --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness Patricia Lakin, a former elementary school teacher and an award-winning author, has written more than fifty published works. Her books, both fiction and nonfiction, span multiple age groups—from toddlers to middle graders. Patricia lives in New York City with her husband, Lee Koenigsberg. They have two grown sons, Aaron and Benjahmin. When not reading, writing, or researching, she can be found traveling with Lee to far-off places in the world. Steve Jobs CHAPTER 1 BEGINNINGS GIVING UP A CHILD FOR adoption has to be an extraordinarily difficult and heart-wrenching decision. But in 1955, one particular couple felt they had no choice. Abdulfattah “John” Jandali and Joanne Scheible were graduate students at the University of Wisconsin who wanted desperately to complete their education. They believed their studies would end, their subsequent careers would be nonexistent, if they chose to keep their child. And so, in San Francisco, California, on February 24, 1955, when their baby boy was born, they put him up for adoption. Joanne Scheible, the baby’s birth mother, felt strongly that the adoptive parents had to be college graduates. Her first choice was a lawyer and his wife. But that couple wanted a girl. The next family on the adoption agency’s list was Clara and Paul Jobs. They were delighted to adopt either a boy or a girl and open their home and their hearts to this infant. The Jobses—unbeknownst to Joanna Scheible at first—were not college graduates. Clara Jobs had only finished high school. She worked as an accountant. Paul Jobs hadn’t even completed high school. He had served in the coast guard during World War II and worked as a machinist. When Joanne Scheible discovered that the Jobses weren’t college graduates, she revised her conditions: In order for the adoption to go through, they had to promise they would send the child to college. The Jobses simply wanted to nurture and love their baby boy. How they would pay for his education was a question they would tackle in the future. But promise they did. Papers were signed and the adoption became official. A family was born. They named their son Steven Paul Jobs. At the time of the adoption, Paul and Clara lived in a small apartment in San Francisco. Soon after Steven came into their lives, they moved to an inexpensive rental home in South San Francisco. In 1958 the Jobses added to their family once again when they adopted a baby girl, whom they named Patty. In 1960, when Steve was five, Paul’s job transfer brought his family to a modest three-bedroom rental house in Mountain View, California—a new suburban area south of San Francisco, where small houses and new businesses were quickly developing. Steve was inquisitive, energetic, and imaginative. As a toddler, he often woke up at four o’clock in the morning. To make sure they could get their rest, his parents bought him a rocking horse to play with. They also put a phonograph in his room with records by Little Richard, a rock-and-roll singer popular in the 1950s. Maybe Little Richard was their favorite artist and that’s why they chose his music. But it was an interesting choice: Little Richard’s songs, from “Good Golly, Miss Molly” to “Tutti Frutti,” were fast-paced and loud—not exactly music to relax to. During those few early morning hours, their son could safely “rock” in more ways than one. Many women in the 1950s were stay-at-home mothers, and Steve was fortunate that Clara was able to spend a great deal of time with him, even teaching him to read before he started school. When not at work, Paul was a constant presence in Steve’s life too. “I was very lucky. . . . My father, Paul, was a pretty remarkable man. . . . He was a machinist by trade and worked very hard and was kind of a genius with his hands. . . . He . . . showed me how to use a hammer and saw and how to build things. It really was very good for me. He spent a lot of time with me.” Paul had a workbench in his garage, and when Steve was about five or six years old, his father sectioned off a part of it for him. “Steve, this is your workbench now,” he said. He kept his tools and workbench clean and in perfect order