Technology and Inventions

Incredible Comparisons

Book cover: Incredible Comparisons
Author(s): 
Russell Ash

This picture book designed for "big kids" gives side-by-side comparisons according to length, height, area, life-span, speed, etc. of all kinds of things – animals, mountains, countries, modes of transportation, man-made structures and much more.

Great Inventors and Inventions

Book cover: Great Inventors and Inventions
Author(s): 
Bruce LaFontaine

Nicely drawn images and fairly detailed text overview important inventions and their inventors from Gutenberg's Movable Type (1438) to the Laser (1960). Arranged in chronological order, the descriptions give some historical background and scientific details about each invention. There is a certain amount of typical problems in the text regarding the medieval era to be full of "darkness and superstition" and a rather incomplete and somewhat erroneous account of Galileo's run-in with the Catholic Church.

Trains

Author(s): 
Gail Gibbons

I really like it when authors of children's books remember that details of how things work are fascinating to children. Gail Gibbons is definitely one of those authors. Her book is filled with very simple illustrations and text about trains, but the various parts of the trains are labeled and the text explains things like how the trains link together and the differences between gondola cars, hopper cars, boxcars and tank cars.The back page contains a chart of signs and signals relating to trains. Appropriate for preschool or kindergarten age children.