Flick a Switch - Hardcover

Seuling, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823417298 ISBN 13: 9780823417292

Publisher: Holiday House, 2003

Synopsis

Describes how electricity was discovered, how early devices were invented to make use of it, how it is generated in power plants, and then how it is distributed for many different uses.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Seuling has written numerous books for children, including Winter Lullaby, From Head to Toe: The Human Body and How It Works, and Oh No! It's Robert and the other popular Robert books. She divides her time between New York City and Landgrove, Vermont.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3-This attempt to explain the nature and transmission of electricity is too simplified to provide much understanding. The first page poses three questions: How does electricity work? Where did it come from? How did it get into the house? Only the third question is answered adequately, by showing a system of wires extending from a power plant into a home. Instead of defining electrons and then demonstrating that electricity is the flow of electrons from one atom to another, the book merely says that "There are little bits of electric power in everything. These little bits are called electrons." The text explains the phenomenon of brushed hair standing on end by saying, "That's the electricity in your hair being stirred up." The resinous substance amber, used by the ancient Greek Thales to produce static electricity, is referred to as a "stone." Michael Faraday's 1831 generator, constructed of a magnet and coil of copper wire, is said to have produced electricity when "The magnet stirred up electrons." Focusing on the more complex, modern electrical apparatus in a power plant, the book says, "A large magnet inside stirs up electrons." With all that "stirring," children may wonder if this was meant to be a cookbook. The illustrations are bold, colorful cartoons. Some feature a young African-American girl and her dog. The characters' dialogue, in balloons, is a corny distraction from any scientific information provided on the same page. Robert Snedden's The History of Electricity (Raintree, 1995; o.p.) has clearer explanations.
Lynda Ritterman, Atco Elementary School, Waterford, NJ
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0823417298
• ISBN 13: 9780823417292
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Tobin Nancy