Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life - Hardcover

MacLeod, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1550744569 ISBN 13: 9781550744569

Publisher: Kids Can Press, 1999

Synopsis

"One would think that I had never done anything worthwhile but the telephone," complained Alexander Graham Bell. No wonder he was annoyed; Bell invented the phone when he was just 29 and went on to lead a long and inventive life. This biography in the Snapshots: Images of People and Places in History series chronicles the life and many remarkable achievements of Alexander Graham Bell, including his work with the hearing impaired and experiments with flight, iceberg locators and, of course, the telephone.

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth MacLeod has written many children's books, including nine titles in the Snapshots Biography series; numerous titles in the Kids Can Read, Kids Books Of and Kids Can Do It series; Why Do Horses Have Manes?; What Did Dinosaurs Eat?; and Monster Fliers. She lives in Toronto.

Reviews

Grade 3-5-Another addition to the growing collection of biographies about Bell. MacLeod traces her subject's life from his birth in Scotland, through his many inventions and achievements, and concludes with his last few experiments and his death at his home in Canada. She gives equal attention to all of Bell's interests, such as his devotion to advancements for the hearing impaired and his later interest in flight. Photos and reproductions of the subject and his family and sketches of his many inventions appear on colorful backgrounds. A list of Web sites is appended. Tom Matthews's Always Inventing (National Geographic, 1999) is a more substantial book for the same age group, but this one is an adequate choice with its own merits.
Carol Fazioli, The Brearley School, New York City, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In what has, for no discernable reason, become a rush to publish biographies of Bell, this emerges as the least formal, most approachable of the pack. MacLeod (I Heard a Little Baa, 1998) takes the great inventor, familiarly dubbed ``AGB,'' from Edinburgh to Ontario, on to Boston, and finally to his estate in Nova Scotia, giving his public and private lives equal attention, capturing his vast range of interest from aeronautics to audiology, and bringing his familiar exploits to life. A stubby caricature of Bell guides readers through full but not overcrowded collages of family photos, manuscript pages, simple diagrams, period advertisements, and newspaper illustrations. This is just a glimpse of the man, of course, and those who want to take a longer look can start with either the web sites listed at the back, or move on to Tom L. Matthews's Always Inventing (p. 69). (index) (Biography. 8-10) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This large-format Canadian book introduces Alexander Graham Bell in a series of double-page spreads featuring topics such as the invention of the telephone, Bell's friendship with Helen Keller, his summer home on Cape Breton, and his experiments building airplanes. Although the author's practice of referring to Bell as "AGB" is distracting at first, the text reads well, and the extended captions offer interesting facts, such as: "During AGB's funeral, telephone service in North America was halted for one minute." Illustrations include color photographs of sites, documents, and artifacts as well as period photographs printed in various colors. An engraving-style representation of Bell in varied poses appears on each spread making cartoon-balloon comments. The number of disparate graphic elements on each spread detracts from the book's visual appeal. Compared to Leonard Everett Fisher's recent Alexander Graham Bell, MacLeod's treatment includes more information, but the presentation, verbally and visually, is more disjointed. A time line and an annotated list of Web sites are appended. Not a basic purchase, but a possible choice for libraries seeking additional material on Bell. Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Kids Can Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1550744569
• ISBN 13: 9781550744569
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32